


hollow ground

by Piyo13



Series: Daemon AU [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Canon Compliant, Insofar as the series of events are more or less the same, M/M, Phichit & Yuuri friendship, i should specify: only canon compliant until episode 11-ish, the fact that everyone has daemons is not and should not be regarded as canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-09-01 03:49:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8606125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piyo13/pseuds/Piyo13
Summary: There's no rules regarding where a daemon has to be in relation to their skater, only that they aren't allowed on the ice. This has always seemed a little unfair to Yuuri.After all, he loves skating like he loves his own soul; why can't he have both?





	1. i.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! I still don't know anything about ice skating!!! I've also opted to use the Proper English (TM) names for things, so like, hot springs instead of onsen, pork cutlets instead of katsudon, etc. Since starting to write this I've also come across a post that translated Yuuri's JSF page where it says he's actually enrolled in a Japanese university and put his education on hold? Whatever, in this AU Yuuri transferred to a uni in the States and finished his degree there.
> 
> title comes from the way skate blades are cut, which i think is very poetically suited to this fic (thanks to patch for that)
> 
> thanks also to patch and bereniceofdale, who read this over for me before posting <3

_ISU Regulations, REGULATIONS FOR COMPETITIONS IN SINGLE & PAIR SKATING AND ICE DANCE, Subsection A: GENERAL, Rule 338: Daemons _

  1. _Daemons are not permitted onto the ice surface whilst the Skater is actively competing._
  2. _Daemons may rejoin their Skater once the Skater has completed their Program/Dance._



_ISU Regulations, REGULATIONS FOR COMPETITIONS IN SINGLE & PAIR SKATING AND ICE DANCE, Subsection A: GENERAL, Rule 342: Required Rinks _

  1. _[...] If possible, a designated space for Daemons shall be set up opposite the space for the Judges and the Referee. This space should run the length of the rink and thus allow Daemons to remain as close to their Skater as necessary for both the Skater and the Daemon’s comfort, while still not being on the ice surface. The Daemon is not required to use this space.  
  
_



* * *

  
There aren’t any rules regarding where daemons should be in relation to their skater, only that they aren’t allowed on ice with them. The rules are more lax the younger you are, but by the time you start competing internationally, your daemon is expected to stay on the sidelines. This has always seemed a bit unfair, because Yuuri loves skating like he loves his own soul, and why can’t he have both at once?

And while there aren’t any rules, per se, it’s considered good form for a daemon to not distract from the skater’s program—which means, for the daemon, holding as still as possible while their human skates around a 60 x 30 meter rink. It’s not easy. Yuuri and Kaida had tried, once, and it had led to an understanding about why so many daemons moved and fidgeted during their skater’s performance—it _hurt._

Just thinking about it makes Kaida poke her nose into Yuuri’s hand, and he picks her up. She morphs into a small bear cub and hugs him back, and he buries his nose into her fur for a moment before Yuuko bursts into the locker room.

“Yuuri! It’s starting! C’mon!” Airi is in the form of a puppy, and hops around excitedly. Kaida changes forms again and wriggles out of Yuuri’s arms, landing on the ground as another puppy, and play-chases Airi around Yuuri and Yuuko’s feet.

Yuuko grabs Yuuri’s wrist and runs into the lounge where the TV is set up, dragging Yuuri behind her. Takeshi’s already there, and Saya joins the fray as soon as Kaida and Airi stumble into the room.

Yuuko sits next to Takeshi, and pats the empty space on her other side. Obligingly, Yuuri sits, and turns his attention to the TV. The announcer is just calling out the first skater—Victor Nikiforov—and Yuuri feels the familiar thrill of excitement whenever he sees Victor called out to skate.

Kaida transforms into a bird and flies up to land on Yuuri’s head as the camera focuses on Victor’s daemon, a small snow leopard. She’s seated in the kiss and cry, her long tail wrapped serenely around her paws, and not a single sign of distress on her face.

Victor, in the center of the rink, arms raised delicately in anticipation of the music, is equally unbothered.

It’s just one of the many things that makes Victor unique.

 _Someday,_ Yuuri thinks, and Kaida echoes his thoughts.

* * *

  
Yuuri skates at a serious competition for the first time when he’s eleven. Even though they’ve trained for it, the time Yuuri has to spend at the far end of the rink _pulls_ , and Kaida spends the entire time running up and down the length of the rink, keeping as close as she’s allowed to.

Yuuri comes in second.

He wants to be first, next time.

* * *

  
When Minako kindly points out, a few days later, that his footwork near the judges wasn’t his best, Yuuri nods—he and Kaida have already discussed it, the fact that Yuuri’s concentration suffered every time he got too far from her.

From then on, at the end of practice, Yuuri and Kaida stay behind while everyone else goes home. Kaida hunkers down in a corner in whatever form she’s preferring that particular day, and Yuuri skates.

They start off easy, Yuuri doing only the most basic compulsory figures he can think of.

‘Easy’ turns out to be relative, and the first time Yuuri reaches the far end of the rink his legs shake so much that he falls, and the weight on his chest is crushing until Kaida flitters over, a sparrow, and turns into a snake, slipping under the collar of Yuuri’s shirt and curling around him, close as she can get. It is only then that the that the pull, the _ache_ , in their chests begins to slip away.

They lay there on the ice for several minutes, just breathing, until the coolness of the ice seeps through Yuuri’s clothes and he sits up.

Kaida slithers out of his shirt and turns into an ermine. They make eye contact.

“I don’t want to do that again,” Kaida says, quiet and resigned.

They both already know what Yuuri’s answer is.

* * *

  
Kaida spends a week as a dog once the magazine article comes out that Victor’s bought a poodle. She only stops when they actually _get_ a dog—also a poodle—and name him Victor.

Yuuko and Takeshi make fun of them a little, but Airi was also a poodle for a while, so Yuuri and Kaida decide they really have no leg to stand on.

* * *

  
Their parents don’t really understand.

They’re supportive, absolutely—never complaining about the amount of time Yuuri spends away from home, or how much money it takes to continually replace his skates as he grows, or when Yuuri asks his mother for help in treating the latest in a series of blisters on his bruised feet—but they don’t _understand_.

“Yuuri,” his mother says kindly when he comes home late one night, his entire body still trembling a bit from the exertion of keeping as far away from Kaida as possible, “Are you sure you need to put yourself through this?”

Kaida slides down from Yuuri’s shoulder and lets herself be fussed over by Iteru as Yuuri finds himself enveloped in a hug.

Yuuri returns it, but says, “Yes, mom. We want to be the best, and we can’t do that unless we get better at handling distance.”

His mother doesn’t reply, but the silence comes off as more out of concern than disapproval.

“Alright,” she says eventually, smoothing down a stray lock of Yuuri’s hair. “Then come and have some dinner, and after that you can use the hot springs.”

“Thank you,” Yuuri says, and follows his mother to a warm bowl of pork cutlets.

* * *

  
Victor wins the Worlds for the first time, and Yuuri is ecstatic. Kaida tries out the form of a snow leopard, but shrugs out of it soon enough. _Not me_ , her thoughts say to Yuuri. He shrugs, though he can’t hold back a touch of disappointment; how great would it have been, if he and Victor’s daemons shared a form? Yuuri feels guilty for that thought almost immediately—Kaida is not Victor’s daemon, and Yuuri is not Victor.

The next day at practice, Yuuko gives Yuuri a present—it’s a poster of Victor, the starting pose of the same routine he won Worlds with.

Yuuri hangs it up as soon as he gets home.

* * *

  
Somewhere between his second competition and his fifth, Yuuri realizes he has a problem with nerves.

* * *

  
Airi settles as an otter. Yuuko is sixteen.

A few weeks later, Saya settles as an akita.

When Takeshi announces that fact, Yuuko runs over and hugs him. Kaida nudges Yuuri’s leg, and motions to where Saya is gently licking Airi’s nose.

Yuuri feels like he shouldn’t be looking.

The moment passes soon enough, the three of them returning to easy banter and talk about the next competitions and the occasional school assignment, but Yuuri notices the subtle way Yuuko and Takeshi tend to turn towards one another more than towards Yuuri, the way Saya and Airi show more interest in each other than their surroundings.

Yuuri doesn’t really mind, when it comes down to it; he’s happy for them, and besides, he loves skating too much to be too concerned about hypothetical other people and how they might feel about him. The thought does, however, flit across his mind—maybe, if he skated less and talked to people more, maybe he could have whatever Yuuko and Takeshi have?

“But that would mean we’d have to be at the rink less,” Kaida mutters, flicking her cat tail.

“There’s no one we’re interested in, anyways,” Yuuri responds, and scratches Kaida behind the ears. “And besides, I like skating.”

Kaida hums happily. Yuuri can feel that she enjoys it almost as much as he does, despite the fact that her biggest task is to hold as still as possible.

He loves her for it.

* * *

  
Somewhere between his seventh competition and his ninth, Yuuri realizes that the problem with nerves is probably better labelled _anxiety_ , and he also realizes that it’s… a lot harder to deal with than most things.

Kaida helps as best she can, but Yuuri continues to botch his jumps whenever he’s placed in an actual competitive setting. Not enough to keep him from advancing in the competition, but enough to make his anxiety about it even worse the next time around.

He still loves skating, he really does, it’s just—hard, sometimes.

* * *

  
When Kaida settles as an arctic fox, Yuuri is almost eighteen. He heaves a sigh of relief and cuddles her close.

It’s a confirmation of what he’s known since he was first allowed to step foot on it: they both belong to the ice.

* * *

  
The decision to move to Detroit is a hard one.

But Yuuri’s made hard decisions before; the fact that Kaida can sit almost motionless on the edge of a rink while Yuuri skates to his best is proof of that.

Still, saying goodbye sucks.

“Don’t hesitate to ever call if you need anything, okay?” Minako half says, half threatens. “But we’ll be cheering for you,” she adds with a spin, pulling out a banner with Yuuri’s name on it from nowhere. He scrambles for a moment, trying to get her to put it away.

Reiji ends up interfering, gently setting his beak on Minako’s shoulder. “Oh, crap,” she mutters. “I’m going to be late. Bye, Yuuri! Take care of yourself over there!” Then she takes off running, Reiji flying after her, classic Minako style.

Then Yuuko steps up. “You’ll come to visit, right?” she asks, one of her triplets balanced in her arms.

“Of course,” Yuuri says. “Of course.”

“Good,” Takeshi says, tucking the other two girls into their special, triplet-sized stroller. Saya is gently nudging their daemons in alongside them. “Take care, okay? Win lots of medals for Hasetsu.”

“And don’t forget, whenever you’re back—the Ice Castle always has open doors for you.” Takeshi places a hand on Yuuko’s shoulder, nodding in agreement.

“Thank you,” Yuuri says, trying not to tear up too much. Kaida alternates between licking Airi and Saya in turn.

“Good luck!” Yuuko says, and then she and Takeshi see themselves out, leaving Yuuri alone with his family.

Mari is impassive, Yoshirō preening himself on her shoulder, but his mother looks like she might cry. His father schools his expression a bit better, but at his feet, Mimori is twitching nervously, sometimes wagging her tail, sometimes tucking it down between her legs. Off to the side, Iteru is wriggling his nose and hopping around constantly.

“Well,” Mari finally says, breaking the silence. Yoshirō flies down, inky feathers audibly dragging through the air. He pulls Kaida’s tail, flapping just out of reach as she spins around to try and catch him. “You do what you have to, little bro. We’ll miss you.”

“Thanks, Mari.” Yuuri darts forward for a quick hug before she moves away. She returns it, if a bit awkwardly. They’ve never been the most tactile of siblings, but it’s nice.

Yuuri then turns to his parents. His mother opens her arms, and Yuuri collapses into them. They stand like that for a few moments, until Yuuri’s father joins in on the hug.

“I hope you achieve what you set out to do, Yuuri,” his mother says.

“Skate well,” his father adds, and then they both usher him towards security.

They wave until they can’t see him anymore.

Yuuri smiles privately to Kaida, and knows they’re thinking the same thing. His parents don’t understand, but he wouldn’t trade them for anything.

Yuuri puts in his earbuds, and, with Kaida curled into a ball on his lap, dozes for most of the flight.

* * *

  
When he arrives in Detroit, he’s picked up by someone with his name in _r_ _ōmaji,_ and who speaks to him in rapid-fire English right off the bat.

She slows down a bit once she realizes that Yuuri’s not entirely following, her blue jay daemon sitting on her shoulder and looking at Yuuri and Kaida with interest. It’s still a shock for Yuuri, though, and he wishes he’d paid better attention in English class.

She—June—laughs when he says this out loud. “Don’t worry, you’ll pick it up in no time. Besides, you’re taking classes here too, aren’t you?” Yuuri nods, and she smiles. “Yeah, you’ll be fine in no time.”

Yuuri and Kaida exchange a glance.

_I certainly hope so._

* * *

  
His roommate, it turns out, is also a figure skater, and they’ll be training together. He’s also from Asia, though his English a bit better than Yuuri’s.

“Hi!” He says, as soon as Yuuri walks into the room he’s been assigned to. “I’m Phichit!”

Yuuri shakes the proffered hand. “I’m Yuuri,” he replies, and Kaida makes a quick acquaintance with Phichit’s daemon, which is an animal Yuuri has never seen before.

Phichit notices the lingering gaze Yuuri gives her, and says, “That’s Naak. She’s a pangolin.”

Yuuri smiles at that, and waves a bit at Naak. “This is Kaida,” he replies in turn. “She’s a… a snow fox,” he finishes.

“You’re both ice animals!” he says, grinning.

Yuuri considers this for a moment. “I guess we are,” he says with a small smile.

Phichit’s talkative, which suits Yuuri perfectly well—he feels like he comes off awkward sometimes, but that’s only because he doesn’t know what to say. With Phichit, that’s not a problem—he fills the silence easily, and over time Yuuri finds it in himself to talk more.

It only takes a week for Naak to speak her first words to Yuuri.

Two weeks later, Kaida speaks to Phichit for the first time.

It’s a good friendship.

* * *

  
Yuuri and Kaida don’t visit Japan.

* * *

  
Yuuri and Phichit help each other with their classes, their skating, and with getting over homesickness. Their coach, Celestino, puts them through gruelling, merciless practices, and sometimes, when there’s an essay due the next day but they’ve been kept at the rink until ten, Yuuri wonders if coming to the United States was really worth it.

Other days, when he finally manages to get through a footwork sequence and earn himself one of Celestino’s nods, he thanks every deity out there that he and Kaida were given this chance.

The hardest points are still when he and Kaida are distanced, but knowing that Phichit and Naak are going through the same thing—it’s comforting. Yuuri and Phichit can grimace at each other across the ice, and Kaida and Naak have a tendency to curl together on the sidelines, ignoring everything that Celestino’s penguin daemon seems to be telling them.

Bit by bit, their skating improves, and their accumulating medals, all stored on the same shelf of their shared dorm, are proof.

* * *

  
The anxiety doesn’t go away, not by a long shot, but over the years Yuuri has learned how to deal with it, and most of the time, it doesn’t affect his performance that badly anymore.

At least, that’s what he thinks, until the Grand Prix.

It starts off with Vicchan dying the week before, and Yuuri’s emotional state only gets more delicate as the competition nears.

He’d only qualified a few fractions of a point above Phichit, and the thought of competing anywhere without Phichit there with him is, well…  strange, by now. Yuuri isn’t sure he’s ready.

There’s the other small issue of _Victor Nikiforov_ being at the Grand Prix, as well. And Victor’s been Yuuri’s idol for as long as he can remember idolizing anyone on the ice. And now Yuuri is supposed to skate against a literal _legend_ —

Kaida places a paw on his chest, a silent reminder to _breathe, Yuuri._

“I don’t know if I can do this,” he confides in her.

“Of course you can,” she scoffs back.

“What if I screw up?”

She rolls her shoulders, and twitches her ears. “Then that’s that, isn’t it?”

Yuuri lets his head fall back until it hits the wall behind him. He pulls Kaida into his arms, and then pulls the blanket up around them, a cocoon of warmth on the far end of his bed.

“Then that’s that,” he echoes, unconvinced.

* * *

  
He screws up.

* * *

  
After his performance, he locks himself into a bathroom stall to call his parents and cry. Kaida gives him a hug as best she can, licking his tears dry.

It doesn’t help as much as either of them would like it to.

* * *

  
On their way out, they not only encounter another Yuri—Russian punk, from the Juniors, his daemon in a threatening, if gangly, tiger form—but also Victor himself.

“A commemorative photo?” Victor says, eyes flashing in a way the cameras had never seemed to pick up. At his feet, his daemon perks her ears with interest, and flicks her tail. “Sure!”

Kaida is on the verge of heading over, Yuuri can tell, so he turns where he stands and walks the opposite direction without a word. Kaida follows, reluctantly.

“That was rude,” she says, later, once they’re out of everyone’s earshot.

“I know,” Yuuri says, guilty to his core.

* * *

That night, they attend the gala, and it's just as bad as they were expecting. Yuuri doesn't socialize well at the best of times, and now, after such a loss—Yuuri ends up having a few too many glasses of champagne, is the point. 

He doesn't remember much else from the night.

He wakes up the next morning with a fierce hangover and a slightly judgmental Kaida, but a brief glance at social media confirms a lack of compromising photos, so Yuuri figures it's probably alright.

* * *

 

Yuuri and Kaida return to Detroit in shame. Their own shame, no one else’s, because everyone else thinks it’s amazing that Yuuri made it that far, but it _grates_ on Yuuri, on Kaida, how much better he _could_ have been, had he not thrown it like that.

Phichit seems like the only one who even begins to understand that emotion, and even then, it’s only a little bit, because Phichit, unlike Yuuri, is a born performer, fully at ease in front of crowds. Naak got all the reservation of the pair, and she’s more outgoing than Kaida on her best days.

Yuuri bites down on his frustration and preps for Nationals, grim in his determination to _not lose._

* * *

  
It’s for naught.

The pressure is too much, and Yuuri fails out of Nationals, not even qualifying for the Four Continents. He can forget about the World Championships.

Yuuri hates himself for it, just a little bit.

* * *

  
Mostly, Yuuri hates that skating has lost its joy for him, in the past weeks.

For a while, he tries to avoid the ice—he ends things with Celestino, he lets his fitness regimen slip and allows himself to eat whatever he wants, when he wants.

He _tries._

It doesn’t work, obviously. He and his soul, they belong to the ice. He holds out a week and a half before he gathers his skates and goes to a rink—not the rink he’s trained on the past four and a half years, but a different one, where he runs less risk of encountering people who know him.

It’s late, and when he arrives, the rink is almost empty. It’s a blessing. He skates around aimlessly, doing figures and whatever footwork sequences or jumps call to him at the moment.

He’s missed the ice.

Eventually Kaida joins him, running and sliding on the ice as she’s usually never allowed to do, and Yuuri feels… not at peace, but significantly more at ease than he has in a while.

* * *

  
It becomes routine for them, while Phichit and Naak are at practice with Celestino, to go to the other rink and skate. Sometimes there’s a lot of people, but mostly it’s empty enough that Yuuri can pretend it’s just him and the ice, the way he likes it.

At some point, tired of not having anything concrete to practice, he tries a few sequences not from any program he’s ever had.

“Stay Close to Me?” Kaida asks, cocking her head to look up at him.

Yuuri shrugs. “Maybe.”

“You should learn it.”

“Why?”

“Because it makes you happy.”

Yuuri concedes she has a point, and spends the rest of the night looking up YouTube clips of Victor’s winning routine and examining them closely, committing the moves to heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also!! I'm still waffling a little bit if I want to let the plot unfold as it does in the show or follow my own ideas--if you have any particularly strong feelings one way or another, lemme know :') you can also bother me on [my tumblr](http://piyo-13.tumblr.com) if you're so inclined
> 
> The daemons:  
> Yuuri Katsuki: Kaida, arctic fox  
> Phichit Chulanont: Naak, sunda pangolin  
> Yuuko Nishigori: Airi, river otter  
> Takeshi Nishigori: Saya, akita inu  
> Toshiya Katsuki: Mimori, shiba inu  
> Hiroko Katsuki: Iteru, rabbit  
> Mari Katsuki: Yoshiro, crow  
> Minako Okukawa: Reiji, red-crowned crane  
> Celestino Cialdini: no name given, rockhopper penguin


	2. ii.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was supposed to go through to the end of episode 7, but then i accidentally wrote 3k+ and decided to just post and make the chapter count longer instead. 
> 
> also, chapter one has had a few sentences updated to reflect the events of episode 10, over which i'm still screaming (it's just the one segment though, the sentences aren't scattered about or anything). 
> 
> and lastly, thank you all for your comments and kudos, it means the world to me <3

As soon as he’s gotten his degree, Yuuri and Kaida go back to Japan.

Phichit and Naak assure them they’ll be fine, and Yuuri—well, skating Victor’s routine has brought back… it’s reminded him why he likes skating so much, and—he needs a break from competing, from constantly hearing about competition, just for the moment.

Minako meets him at the airport, and his break from the harsh reality of competitive skating is short-lived. The heckling begins as soon as Minako notices the weight he’s gained over the past few months. It only stops for a few minutes while Yuuri goes and pays respects to Vicchan.

At least he has his mother’s pork cutlets as consolation.

* * *

Skating for just Yuuko and Airi, after all these years, is comforting. There’s no music playing, only three pairs of eyes on him instead of the whole world’s—Yuuri loses himself to the skating in a way he hasn’t had the freedom to do in a long time.

He feels his happiness reflected back at him through his bond with Kaida.

When he pulls to a close, his mental musical accompaniment drawing to an end, Yuuri is breathing hard, but feels better than he has in a while. He almost jumps when Yuuko shrieks and claps.

Then the triplets pop up, and it really hits Yuuri, just how long he’s been gone.

* * *

The next morning, Yuuri almost wishes he’d _stayed_ gone.

“It’s not _that_ bad…” Kaida says, watching the video of Yuuri skating over Yuuri’s shoulder.

Yuuri just groans, turns the video off, and tries to crawl back into his bed as far as he’s able to.

* * *

Kaida’s halfway to her summer coat, her fur splotched white and brown, and it’s snowing outside.

As if that isn’t weird enough, as soon as Yuuri gets downstairs to go help shovel, he’s immediately bowled over by a huge poodle, who lays on his chest and idly wags its tail at him. Kaida has her ears pressed back flat to her skull.

“Vicchan?” Yuuri asks after a second.

“Isn’t it funny?” Yuuri’s father asks beatifically, Mimori wagging her tail slowly by his side. “He looks just like Vicchan! But he belongs to a handsome foreigner, he just came here to use the hot springs, and he asked us to watch his dog, so naturally we said yes—”

Yuuri stopped listening a while ago.

He makes eye contact with Kaida, who’s staring at him with an expression that mirrors the shock Yuuri’s feeling. _How many handsome foreigners with giant poodles can there be in the world?_

With a yelp, Yuuri and Kaida take off, running towards the hot springs and entering every single chamber, searching frantically, until—

“Victor?” Yuuri says, incredulous. The snow leopard lying on the side of the hot spring yawns, sharp fangs framed by condensation-laden whiskers.

Victor stands up, steam billowing around him. “Yuuri! Starting today, I’ll be your coach! I’ll make you win the Grand Prix Final.”

And then Victor _winks._

* * *

Yuuri finally goes through the messages that have accumulated on his phone since turning it off. Approximately half are from Phichit. He skims them briefly, a few jumping out at him as he reads—

_ >yuuuuuuuuriiiiiiii have u made it home yet _

_ >yuuriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii _

_ >omg that video tho!! _ _  
_ _ >i bet u didn’t even know they posted it huh _

_ >haha check out the pageviews _

_ >naak says to get ur butt back to ur phooooooone _  
_ >srsly tho how do u survive so long w/out checkin ur msgs _ _  
>i’d die_

_ >btw i posted some pics to insta!!! new rink!!!!! _

_ >dude have u heard the rumors yet nikiforov is gonna coach u _

_ >gdi yuuri answer meeeeeeeee _  
_ >i’m so alone and neglected here _ _  
>naak and i r gonna vanish and wither away bc u ignored us_

Yuuri bites his lip, then types out an answer.

_-The rumors are true, Victor’s here…_

He doesn’t have to wait long for a reply.

 _ >WHAT. YUURI. WHAT!!!!!!!! _  
_ >omg wait has he seen ur room yet _ _  
>or should i say, his shrine_

Yuuri blushes, self-consciously eyeing the posters that still adorn his walls. He should probably take them down soon anyways, lest Victor see…

_-No he has not and I am intending on keeping it that way._

> _pics or it didn’t happen my friend. naak wants kaida 2 know bc kaida is more likely to help us out here_

_-Absolutely not, I know what you’re like with Instagram._

_ >rude _

Yuuri rolls over, hands coming up to his face. _Victor’s here. He came here for us._ Kaida snuggles closer to Yuuri, and he scratches her absently.

_No wonder my heart’s beating so loudly._

_I’m happy._

He falls asleep with his phone next to him, vibrating gently every once in a while.

* * *

Victor has a tongue of steel and practically no reservations when it comes to ripping Yuuri a new one.

This contrasts well enough with his polite, flirty public persona that Yuuri is quickly disillusioned with… pretty much everything he’d ever thought about Victor. Not that Yuuri doesn’t like getting to know Victor.

He’s just.

Woefully unprepared for the full brunt of Victor’s personality, is all.

Vasilisa, in contrast to Victor, is just as quiet and reserved in person as she appears on screen, padding silently around the inn and the springs, though never speaking (and if that isn’t a contrast with Phichit and Naak… Yuuri misses them already). The most Yuuri has heard from Vasilisa is a soft laugh, usually at his and Kaida’s expense.

Getting used to them is… a process.

“At least the rest of our family seems to like them?” Kaida mumbles to Yuuri one day, after they return from a 10 kilometer run, both panting hard.

Yuuri takes a few more gulps of water, looking over to where Victor and his mother are engaged in a complicated game of charades, given his mother’s limited English and Victor’s even more limited Japanese. They’re both smiling and making faces as their gestures get more and more expansive.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I like Vasilisa,” Kaida responds, apropos of nothing.

Yuuri blinks and turns to her. “Why?” he asks. He’s still nervous whenever Vasilisa yawns, or otherwise shows off her fangs.

Kaida’s tail twitches a little bit. “She’s funny.”

Yuuri looks back to Vasilisa, who’s more or less completely ignoring Victor for the moment, lying instead on the ground next to Makkachin.

“...I guess,” Yuuri replies.

He starts paying more attention to Vasilisa after that, and pretends not to notice how Kaida invariably gravitates towards her, or how Vasilisa seems to return this fascination.

Yuuri doesn’t want to reflect on what that means for their humans.

* * *

Yuuri loses his nervousness around Vasilisa a few days later, as he watches, with a sense of inevitability, as Vasilisa trips over the loose stone on the side of the hot springs, tries to use one of the slippery edges to catch herself, fails, and falls in with a hiss.

On the other side of the pool, Victor breaks down laughing.

Yuuri’s never heard such a beautiful sound.

* * *

They have about three weeks of training in peace—never on the ice, to Yuuri’s dismay—until Victor reveals his location to the world.

It doesn’t happen on purpose—it’s another warm spring day, Victor’s riding his bike, Vasilisa is sitting pretty in the oversized basket Victor’d hooked up to the handlebars, and Yuuri, Kaida, and Makkachin are running after him.

They stop once they get to the top of the hill, and Vasilisa hops out of the basket when Victor parks the car, and points to one of the benches. Yuuri knows the drill; giving himself a few seconds to quickly catch his breath, he jumps onto the the bench and starts doing dips. Next to him, Kaida is flopped on the ground, her fur too thick despite being short and brown, and after a few dips, Vasilisa comes over and flops down next to Kaida, bushy tail obscuring her.

“So, do you have feelings for Minako?” Victor asks, and Yuuri almost falls off the bench.

“What!? No!”

“Ah, you have a significant other, then?”

“No, not—”

“A lover?”

Yuuri makes a sound that was supposed to be a ‘no’, but sounds more like a dying parrot.

Victor frowns dramatically. “Alright, let’s talk about me, then—my first lover was—”

“Nope! No, you’re fine that’s good we don’t need to!” Yuuri manages to spit out, his arms windmilling in front of him. Victor falls silent.

“So, what’s that?” Victor asks after a few seconds.

Yuuri follows the line of his extended hand.

“That’s Hasetsu Castle, inside there’s a ninja house,” he replies, and Victor’s eyes get wide.

“Whoa, really!?” Victor asks, spinning around to stare up at the fake ninja house with awe.

Vasilisa displays a feat of athleticism, jogging up to the wall and using the minute footholds in the stone to spring up two, three, five meters, before pushing off and landing, lighter than should be possible for a creature her size, back down on the floor, her tail-tip lashing. She stares straight ahead for a second, then primly sits up and begins to groom the fur on her paw.

Kaida’s so entranced that she doesn’t even notice Yuuri’s foot until he’s successfully tipped her over into the dirt. She glares at him, and Yuuri, cheeks feeling faintly warm, glares back.

“Yuuri, you _have_ to take a picture of me here!” Victor says, shoving his phone into Yuuri’s hand and scooping up both Vasilisa and Makkachin.

Yuuri, unthinkingly, and because he seems incapable of denying Victor anything, complies.

And then it’s geotagged and hashtagged and the next morning sees a wall of reporters between them and the ice rink.

At least Victor and Vasilisa look about as happy about it as Kaida and Yuuri feel, which is to say, not happy at all.

* * *

Yuuri isn’t aware of the newcomer amidst the crowd of reporters until he’s sent flying into the rink. Kaida yelps and darts after him, only to be cut off by a tiger daemon that seems oddly familiar.

 _What a dick move,_ Yuuri thinks, dazedly, from the floor, until a boot meets his head.

“You!” says a voice that, like the daemon, seems oddly familiar. “You took Victor away!”

“What? No, Victor came here on his own…” Yuuri says, pushing the boot away and getting to his feet. He recognizes the voice now; Yuri Plisetsky, who’d threatened him in the bathroom last year.

Some things apparently haven’t changed.

“Apologize! You’re the one who’s making him throw away his entire career!”

Yuri, in a way that’s oddly similar to Victor, seems intent on cutting Yuuri with his words. Behind him, his daemon is posturing. She’s hissing and her hackles are raised, teeth bared—much like her human—but… she’s not intimidating.

Kaida’s not cowering, and Yuuri simply crosses his arms, a small smile playing on his lips. He knows Yurio got to him last time, and this is probably the reason for the surge of confidence in him, but—

Of the two of them, _Yuuri_ is the one who skated in the Grand Prix. _Yuuri_ has experience. It’s a feeling he’s come across more than he would like, but it’s familiar.

_He’s underestimating me._

* * *

There’s a lot of shouting in Russian, mostly from Yuri, and a lot of shrugging in Russian, mostly from Victor. Vasilisa and Yuri’s daemon are sitting off to the side, though Yuri’s daemon is no longer a tiger, but a housecat. Vasilisa is paying her no attention, and she seems, unless Yuuri and Kaida are both mistaken, discomfited.

Then Yurio glances sideways at Yuuri, and back to Victor, and continues speaking in English— “Don’t waste your time here with this fatso! Come back to Russia and coach me instead!”

It stings, this time, and all the more because Yuuri knows he’s meant to understand it.

And then Victor ducks his head, pensive. Yuuri glances at Vasilisa, but she only twitches her tail.

Then Victor looks up, a smile on his face, and Yuuri has a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Alright! I’ve made up my mind! I’ll choreograph a piece for both of you and then we’ll see who skates it best, and that’s who I’ll coach!”

“ _What!?”_

It appears that Yuri and Yuuri are in agreement, on that matter at least.

* * *

“Ah!” Mari says when she sees Russian Yuri at the dinner table. “It’s Yurio!”

Somehow—not inexplicably, because Victor is as good an explanation as any—the name sticks.

* * *

Yuuri has never fully appreciated how much Vasilisa actually _moves_ —how much her ears rotate or her tail flicks or the constant readjustment of her weight, how she throws herself dramatically on the ground to expose her belly, or how alert and interested and curious she seems in the world at large—until he sees her in front of the press.

She completely shuts down. There’s really no other expression that would properly encapsulate how still she becomes, not even her ears twitching, as she stands quietly next to Victor while he smiles graciously and laughs along to inane commentary given to him by reporters. Yuuri knows from experience that the press don’t often even show Vasilisa on screen when Victor is being interviewed, and now he understands why.

Come to think of it, Victor seems to shut down, too—none of the smiles reach his eyes, all his movements graceful but _choreographed_. Like every microphone or camera directed at his face is just one more element of a program he has to perform.

Though, Yuuri considers as he slinks past the crowd and into the rink, it’s highly doubtful that anyone watching him would ever notice. Not unless they’d been lucky enough to see Victor in another context, when he wasn’t putting on a show.

When he was being—

When Victor was being, maybe, _honest._

Yuuri’s heart skips a beat, and Kaida looks at him.

“It’s nothing,” he says in answer to her unspoken question.

What he means is closer to _it’s everything; it means Victor trusts me or likes me or respects me enough to drop the mask and be_ himself, _and that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside and I don’t quite know why._

* * *

“Have you ever thought about love?” Victor asks, and it’s an embarrassingly short moment before both Yurio and Yuuri reply in the negative.

* * *

Victor demonstrates their programs.

Yuuri is at a loss, and he spends the evening in a daze.

“Kaida,” he mumbles, tucked under the blankets right before bed. “How am I supposed to be _Eros_ ? Did you _see_ Victor’s skating today? Literal sex on ice, and he was wearing sweatpants! I’m screwed! I don’t… I don’t have the confidence for that...”

It’s dark in his room and Yuuri doesn’t have his glasses on, but he can _feel_ the capital-L _Look_ Kaida gives him. She doesn’t elaborate, and Yuuri dozes off into fitful sleep before he can pursue the topic.

* * *

Takeshi and Saya have volunteered to help Yuuri train, seeing as the rink is mostly closed to the public for Yuuri and Yurio’s sakes (and Yuuri feels a little guilty about that, at least until Victor assures him that the costs are being paid for, never fear). It’s nice to hang around with Takeshi again, and Kaida is happy to have Saya for company.

Takeshi is, though, above all other things, almost brutally honest. Case in point—“You really think you could compete with the playboy Victor?” he asks, after Yuuri tells him the story he sees in the _Eros_ program.

Yuuri droops, and Kaida nibbles on Saya’s ear. “That’s the _problem…_ I don’t think I can.”

* * *

Not training with Phichit, much like not competing with him, is strange, both for Yuuri and for Kaida. Yurio’s daemon doesn’t want anything to do with her, and Vasilisa… well. Vasilisa is not the kind to cuddle with anyone except Victor himself.

It’s lonely.

* * *

Yuuri’s phone rings for three different calls before he forces himself to move. Laying prone on his bed staring at nothing is just too comfortable for its own good, really.

“Hello?” he says, not bothering to look at this caller ID. There’s only one person who would call that many times consecutively.

“Yuuri! Long time no talk!” Phichit says from the other side of the line. “What’s up?”

Yuuri throws his free arm over his eyes and groans, loudly.

“Ah,” Phichit says. “New coach issues?”

“Not… new coach issues…”

“Unexpected competition issues?” Phichit asks, and Yuuri’s grateful that Phichit keeps up on the news.

“Something like that.”

“Do you want to talk about it right now?”

“No?” Yuuri says. Phichit’s never given him a choice on that matter, before.

“Alright. Then I’ll tell you all about _my_ life, and once I’m done we’ll come back to you, sound good?”

Yuuri huffs out a chuckle. _Typical Phichit._ “Fine. So, Phichit, how’s your life?”

“Significantly better since I finally got my friend to answer his phone!” Phichit quips, and then, without pause, launches into a tirade about his new home rink in Bangkok and the best kinds of street food and how Celestino’s doing and Naak’s favorite flower vendor who also has a pangolin daemon and his new rinkmates who are all younger than him and finally, the inspiration for his new program. Which Yuuri’s heard about before, extensively, mostly because Phichit watched that movie at least once a month for the four-and-then-some years they lived together.

But Phichit’s enthusiasm is clear, and it makes Yuuri smile to hear it. “Sounds amazing… I can’t wait to see it!”

“I can’t wait to skate it! Which brings me to my actual reason for calling—” Yuuri snorts, mainly because they’ve already been on the phone for close to an hour— “What’s the deal with you?”

Yuuri groans again, though after an hour of light-hearted conversation, it’s less despairing. “Well, I now have to compete for the chance to keep Victor as my coach, not ideal.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s tough. But Yuuri! You made it to the Grand Prix!” Then Phichit gets serious. “You’re one of the best skaters I know, and everyone I know is the best of the best. Really, Yuuri, your footwork is amazing and even if you don’t always land your jumps the best you’ve more than got the PCS to make up for it. What happened last year was a fluke of nerves and now you’ve grown and matured and—”

“Yeah, yeah, thank you, but… yeah. I don’t know.” There’s a beat of expectant silence, but then Phichit, as usual, takes it upon himself to fill it.

“Hm. What’s your program going to be? Short? Free? Music? Is it hard? Is there a quad flip?”

“A quad—Phichit! As if!”

“Hey, you never know,” Phichit replies, and Yuuri can practically hear the shrug. “So go on, tell me?”

Yuuri tells—his turn to talk, now.

“Hmm,” Phichit says, once Yuuri’s filled him in on all the details of his program, including the problem with dancing to _Eros_ when Yuuri’s pretty sure he’s never had an eros-filled moment in his entire life. The sound of Phichit’s fingers drumming on Naak’s scales while he thinks is just audible through the phone. “Well, what do you like a lot?” Phichit asks.

 _Victor_ , Yuuri thinks.

He’d never say that, though.

* * *

“Yuuri,” Kaida says one day at dinner. She’s upside down on the floor, her paws waving about in the air, and everyone is staring at her—this is the first time she’s spoken in front of Victor or Yurio, or their daemons. “I want pork cutlets.”

“Pork cutlets?” Yuuri repeats, glancing over at Victor’s plate.

And suddenly—

“Ah-hah! Pork cutlets! That’s my _eros_ !” He slams his hands down on the table as he says it, and then immediately shrinks back in on himself. Now everyone is staring at _him._ Yurio looks confused, his daemon is sneering, Victor looks dismayed, and Vasilisa’s ears are drooping.

“That’s… not what I meant, but okay,” Kaida says.

* * *

Yuuri sees the exact moment under the waterfall when Yurio realizes what _agape_ means to him. Kaida shudders, because she feels it too—Yurio, for all his youth, is a formidable skater, and Yuuri is equal parts excited and intimidated by the thought of what Yurio can accomplish, armed with his new understanding.

* * *

The next day, Yuuri swallows his pride. Victor’s missing—having vanished into the bar scene during the night—and Yuuri uses that to his advantage.

“Yurio… please teach me how to land the quad Salchow!”

For a moment, Yurio’s daemon lashes her tail behind him, and Yuuri thinks it might be a lost cause. Next to him, Kaida crouches down, showing a bit of her throat.

Then Yurio nods.

“Fine.”

Yurio, it turns out, coaches like he lives the rest of his life—with lots of exasperation-bordering-anger and heaps of impatience. Still, by the time that Victor reappears and Yuuri and Yurio skate apart to pretend nothing happened, Yuuri feels more confident in his jumps.

Kaida even gets close enough to Yurio’s daemon to give her a quick lick on the face in gratitude.

* * *

“Yuuri… why don’t you _become_ the lady?” Kaida asks, the night before the skate. Yuuri’s holding up the skating costume, examining it carefully.

“Become the lady? How?” There’s a beat of silence between the two of them, and then Kaida’s ears prick up at the same moment Yuuri claps his hands.

“ _Minako_ ,” they say at the same time.

* * *

Yuuri’s tired, exhausted, but now he can move with a grace that isn’t entirely his own.

He watches Yurio skate first, the crowd’s loud cheers echoing around the rink.

Yurio is, as usual, technically flawless. With every jump he lands, the crowd gets louder in Yuuri’s ears, and even if Yurio’s daemon isn’t as still and composed as Vasilisa or even Kaida, it doesn’t seem to matter.

Whatever Yurio discovered in the waterfall, it’s _working_. His program is amazing, but Yuuri can’t shake the trepidation that comes when he remembers the stakes. Kaida’s paw on his thigh is anchoring, but even so, when Vasilisa appears in his line of sight and Victor tells him it’s his turn, Yuuri lets out a soft yelp.

He stares at Victor for a few seconds, hands clasped over his mouth.

“Watch me,” Yuuri finally says, and he hates that he can hear the tremor in his voice. “I’m going to become a delicious pork cutlet bowl, so watch me.”

Then he darts forward and throws his arms around Victor. Behind him, Kaida draws a deep breath, and maybe Vasilisa too, Yuuri can’t tell—Victor, even through his coat, is warm, and solid, and comforting.

Victor’s arms come up to hug Yuuri in turn.

“Of course,” Victor says, louder than a whisper but quieter than normal speech. “I love pork cutlets.” It sounds… _significant_.

Yuuri can’t help the shudder that runs down his spine.

* * *

He skates.

It’s hard.

The program’s tough, and all of his jumps are in the second half, and Yuuri is trying his hardest to channel sexy pork cutlet bowl with a side of seductress. He flubs the jump on the far end but manages not to lose his nerve, flashes of love and support filtering over through his bond with Kaida.

And then it’s over.

He knows he’s won when he finds himself in Victor’s arms again after the skate.

Vasilisa licks Kaida, one large swipe across the top of her head, and pulls her in close with a fluffy paw. Yuuri feels an almost overwhelming wave of emotion, of happiness and fondness and—

—and then Victor launches into a scathing critique of the performance and Yuuri lets himself fall gently to the floor.

 _Moment, ruined_ , says a voice in Yuuri’s head that sounds suspiciously like Phichit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [my tumblr,](http://piyo-13.tumblr.com) in case you want even more yuri on ice and the occasional random science on your dash
> 
> ....and in case you're wondering, daemons can't really get drunk (in this fic); their behavior becomes more uninhibited, but they can't black out. so yes, kaida _knows_ what yuuri did.
> 
> The daemons:  
> Yuuri Katsuki: Kaida, arctic fox  
> Victor Nikiforov: Vasilisa, snow leopard  
> Phichit Chulanont: Naak, sunda pangolin  
> Yuuko Nishigori: Airi, river otter  
> Takeshi Nishigori: Saya, akita inu  
> Toshiya Katsuki: Mimori, shiba inu  
> Hiroko Katsuki: Iteru, rabbit  
> Mari Katsuki: Yoshiro, crow  
> Minako Okukawa: Reiji, red-crowned crane  
> Yuri Plisetsky: Yekaterina, unsettled


	3. iii.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took me so long!! i've had a hell of a past few weeks, including but not limited to moving continents, saying goodbye to too many people, and yuri on ice actually _ending..._ that being said i'm going to be in one place for the foreseeable future so i'm gonna aim for a chapter every two weeks at minimum, if not faster! ~~come kick my ass about this over on[tumblr](http://piyo-13.tumblr.com) if you see i'm not doing it~~
> 
> and i'd also just, from the bottom of my heart, like to thank each and every one of you who commented and kudos'd this fic. your feedback means so much and i promise you i stupid-grin at my laptop for like 10 minutes every time i get a notification about that so like. thank you <3
> 
> there's hovertext for translations on desktop (just mouse over) and footnotes for when the hovertext isn't working in the end notes!

Yuuri tries not to let it get to him too much, but there’s times when he just has to take a moment and stare. Because _Victor Nikiforov_ is his coach, because _Victor Nikiforov_ just threw down a flawless quad flip in the far end of Yuuri’s home rink—or, in this case, because Kaida is dozing on top of a dozing Vasilisa, and Victor is taking a picture on his phone.

Maybe it’s because they’ve already been training for three and a half hours, or because it’s all slightly blurry thanks to his lack of glasses, but Yuuri doesn’t immediately realize that Victor’s not taking the photo with the camera app.

“Victor,” he says after a moment. “Please tell me you didn’t post that on—”

“Ooh, twenty-three likes on Instagram already!”

Yuuri groans.

* * *

“What are you thinking about?” Victor asks as Yuuri pushes himself up off the ice. Yuuri can’t stop the blush; he was thinking about Victor, and the fact that Victor’s here, and coaching him—and potential coaching fees.

“Huh?” Yuuri answers instead.

Victor tilts his head, much like Vicchan used to whenever he heard a new word. “You flub your jumps when there’s something on your mind, so—what is it?”

Yuuri shakes his head and raises his hands up. “Nothing,” he replies hastily. “I’ll stop thinking now.”

There’s a bit of a scuffle in the corner where Vasilisa and Kaida have decided to stake their base today, and Yuuri uses Victor’s temporary distraction to take a lap around the ice, building up speed for his next attempt at the jump.

* * *

Yuuri has a habit of bringing the ice home with him.

It’s never been a problem, per se; he’s always had Kaida to mull things over with, and Minako and Reiji would join in when they were around, but none of Yuuri and Kaida’s immediate family were particularly thrilled about it. He doesn’t blame them—listening to a kid debating the merits of one more or less twizzle and whether it would be better to have just a camel spin or a flying one for hours on end with his daemon was probably not the most interesting of things.

This changes when Victor’s around, though.

Because Victor brings the ice home, just like Yuuri does, just like Kaida does. Yuuri suspects Vasilisa is the same way, but she hasn’t spoken in front of him before, and he’s not going to push (and after all, her silence reminds him that Victor is here to be his _coach_ , and no other reason). Their conversation, while never stunted, is certainly eased by the choreography work-through—and, Yuuri suspects, by the presence of the hot springs.

“Yuuri, maybe we should take out one of the three quads in your program.”

That’s where they are at the moment—Yuuri’s still soaking, letting the warmth ease his sore muscles, but Victor’s done and is sitting on the side of the pool, stretching. Very distractingly.

Yuuri turns around, willing himself to come up with an appropriate response. “But—but if I want to win the Grand Prix Final, I’ll need those!”

“Why?” Victor asks, and even with his back turned, Yuuri can picture the exact face he’s making. “Just get a perfect score on all the PCS instead!”

Yuuri resists the temptation to drown himself, and settles for leaning his head in his arms on the edge of the pool. Kaida speaks for him.

“There’s only so much PCS can do to close point gaps,” she says. _And Yuuri has a habit of missing a_ lot _of TES,_ she doesn’t say. The implication’s still there, though.

“Hm,” Victor says. There’s the sound of footsteps that come to a stop right in front of Yuuri, but he still doesn’t look up. Better to experience existential failure on one’s own, especially when in the presence of a literal skating god.

“Yuuri, do you know why I decided to become your coach?”

“Hm?” Yuuri looks up, finally, and that’s a mistake, because it frees his hands and suddenly Victor’s grabbing them and half-pulling Yuuri out of the water. Yuuri’s not sure if it’s the relatively chilled air that’s giving him goosebumps, or if it’s the look on Victor’s face.

“I was drawn to you because of the music,” Victor croons, pulling Yuuri even closer. “And the way you skate, like your body itself is _creating_ music.” Both Kaida and Vasilisa snort loudly in the background, but Victor pays them no heed, and Yuuri’s too caught up in their proximity to give much thought to anything else. “I want to create a high-difficulty program to maximize on that. Only I can do that—that’s what I thought.” Then Victor stands up fully and pulls Yuuri, simultaneously cold and warm all over, into standing with him. “And the short program confirmed that!”

There’s a second of silence as they’re standing there, both naked, Yuuri shivering slightly and Victor tapping his chin pensively. Kaida, slightly off to the side where the ground is still dry, has got her ears pricked with interest and is looking directly at Victor. Yuuri would will her to stop, but his attention is promptly distracted by Victor leaning down and gently grabbing his ankle, and then pulling him up into an arabesque.

One of Victor’s hands is splayed on Yuuri’s chest, holding him upright.

“Maybe you should produce your own free skate program,” Victor says.

“Huh!?” Yuuri says. “But—usually my coach has chosen the music for—ow, ow, ow!” Victor pulls Yuuri’s leg up higher, and moves closer to provide better support. “That hurts!”

“Isn’t it better to do it yourself?” Victor asks, unperturbed by Yuuri’s complaints.

“But my coach—”

“Who was your coach again?”

Suddenly there’s a loud hissing growl. Both Victor and Yuuri turn their attention towards Vasilisa, who’s flashing her fangs at a group of strangers hastily retreating from the doorway, all of whom are wearing the expression of someone caught in the act, and most of whom’s daemons seem terrified of Vasilisa’s angrily lashing tail.

Victor sends her a sweet smile, then refocuses on Yuuri.

“Now, where were we?”

* * *

Yuuri moderates the call between Celestino and Victor. It’s not as bad as he’d thought it would be, given that Victor essentially took Celestino’s job. Still, even though Celestino lays out Yuuri’s problem with self-confidence, Yuuri can’t help but feel relieved.

“Ahh, I’m so glad he’s not angry or anything… I’ve been putting off calling him after the way last season ended,” Yuuri says.

Victor gets all up in Yuuri’s face. “Yuuri. Why haven’t you shown _me_ the music?”

* * *

It takes Yuuri a day of hunting through his various computer files to find the old music, and a further day of listening to the musical version of his underwhelming competitive skating life to gather enough courage to bring it up to Victor.

The music is, inevitably, greeted with a ‘maybe keep looking’. Yuuri tries not to take it personally.

* * *

The idea for what to do about the music comes to him while he’s running, and it takes all of Yuuri’s self-discipline to keep from turning around halfway through his workout to carry it out. In the end, he and Kaida don’t get back home until late, though when he Skypes Phichit, Phichit picks up on his phone, clearly still at the rink.

“Phichit! สวัสดี ครับ!”

 _“Yuuri! Hi! Heh, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?_ ”

“Just a bit,” Yuuri says, smiling. Kaida jumps up next to Yuuri, shoving her face into range of the camera.

“Hi Phichit!”

 _“Kaida! Hi! Hold on let me—_ ” There’s a bit of jostling as the camera drops and jumps and Yuuri gets the impression that Phichit’s skating, and then the picture straightens out, and Phichit’s sitting on a bench outside the rink with Naak in his lap.

 _“Hi!”_ Naak says, waving a paw.

 _“Yuuri, when are you coming to visit? I can totally put you up for a few days, I want to show you all around Bangkok!”_ Naak nods vigorously in agreement.

“Ha, ขอบคุณครับ, Phichit. Maybe once this season’s over…?”

_“I’m gonna hold you to that.”_

“You’d better,” Kaida says with a laugh. “I want a vacation!”

 _“Don’t worry, I won’t let him forget,”_ Naak replies.

“Vacations aside, I did actually have a question for you…” Yuuri says.

 _“Shoot,_ ” Phichit replies.

“Do you remember when I had that music made for a program I wanted to skate?”

_“Ah, yeah! By the conservatory student, right?”_

Yuuri nods. “That’s the one. I didn’t end up using it in the end, and I feel kind of bad… not to mention things got kind of awkward around her after that…” Yuuri lets his sentence trail off. Phichit, in his usual quick manner, picks up immediately on what Yuuri’s asking.

_“Gotcha! I’ll put out some feelers, see if I can find out where she is and stuff!”_

_“I’m like, 95% positive she’s not angry or anything though,”_ Naak adds.

Yuuri sags a bit in relief. "Thanks, Phichit."

 _"Anytime, Yuuri. So does this mean—_ ” Phichit cuts off abruptly, both him and Naak looking out at something beyond the camera. _"Yeah, be right there!"_ Phichit says, before turning back to Yuuri. _"Sorry, Ciao-ciao wants me back on the ice real quick. Will you be around later?"_

Yuuri nods. "Yeah, should be fine to call until... until ten your time, or so."

_"Awesome, T-T-Y-L!"_

_"Bye!"_ Naak adds.

"Bye," Yuuri and Kaida say at the same time. "Til later," Yuuri adds, and Phichit ends the call with a wave.

Looking forward to talking more with Phichit later, Yuuri decides to use the meantime to get himself some food.

* * *

Victor’s tongue is, as ever, biting and—well, usually Yuuri can deal with it. Usually he _does_ deal with it. But he’s just under-rotated his jump for the umpteenth time, he’s pretty sure his feet have some new blisters, his knee hurts from a bad landing he took yesterday, and half of his body feels bruised from the number of falls he’s been taking—and so when Victor makes yet another dig at Yuuri’s lack of love life, Yuuri snaps.

“ _What?”_ he snarls, though it doesn’t sound menacing, still out of breath as he is. Vasilisa, her forepaws resting on the wall to give her a better view of the ice surface, actually flinches. There’s a moment of silence, and then Yuuri blanches.

“Aaah, sorry, sorry, that was—I didn’t—!”

“Oh, right, you’ve never had a lover before,” Victor replies, almost more to himself than to Yuuri. Still, it hurts.

Yuuri spends the next few days avoiding interaction with Victor as much as is possible, given that Victor’s his coach. Yuuri gets particularly adept at turning his back and walking away with minimal comment. It’s not that he doesn’t… _want_ to be around Victor it’s just that… being away from the rink gives Victor more choice in their conversation topics, and Yuuri’s not feeling capable of dealing with much, right now. He’s not feeling capable of not coming off as a complete waste of space, right now, either.

“You’re being as rude to him as you were right after the Grand Prix,” Kaida admonishes on the fourth day, when Yuuri’s huddled under his blankets, shaking slightly and _really_ not wanting to go to practice. He’s already late, anyways. Kaida’s been pacing back and forth in front of the door, clearly not happy. Not that it’s having much of an effect on Yuuri, at the moment.

“Maybe if I’m rude enough he’ll go away,” Yuuri mumbles back. Maybe if he’s rude enough, Victor will finally realize that he shouldn’t waste his time here, coaching Yuuri.

“Yeah, ‘cause that worked _so well_ for you last time,” Kaida says, rolling her eyes.

Yuuri glares at her.

She glares back.

Then the door slams open, and Victor and Vasilisa are standing on the other side. Vasilisa’s staring unblinkingly and Victor is smiling that smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Yuuri,” he says, and for a second Yuuri feels a flash of true fear. Then Victor sheds whatever anger and annoyance he was carrying, and smiles at Yuuri like normal. “Let’s go to the ocean.”

* * *

They’re sitting on the dreary beach, clouds blocking out most of the sun. Yuuri’s got his knees pulled up to his chest, but Victor’s relaxed, almost lounging. Kaida and Vasilisa are wandering down the beach, trailed by Makkachin. They’re pushing the limits of their training—Vasilisa continues forward until it’s clear Kaida can no longer follow, and then doubles back. Yuuri can sense that Kaida wants to train some more, but they can’t afford the time and exhaustion it would take at this point in the season.

They’ve managed with what they’ve got so far, and—

“The seagulls here remind me of St. Petersburg,” Victor says, gazing out at the ocean.

Vasilisa jumps at a gull that swoops too close, paws thrashing in the air, but she doesn’t catch it. Missing it doesn’t look like it was an accident.

“I never thought I’d leave that city,” Victor continues, sounding so wistful and resigned that Yuuri feels a pang of guilt strike him. “So I never used to notice the seagulls’ cries.” Makkachin ambles back, and Victor scratches him behind the ears. “Do you ever have moments like that?”

Yuuri sucks in a breath, releasing it shakily. His heart thumps in his ears.

“There—there was this girl. In Detroit,” he says. He feels a sudden burst of joy from Kaida—she and Vasilisa are at the waterline, play-fighting, and that happiness bolsters Yuuri into continuing. “She was really pushy, and kept talking to me. One time, a rinkmate got into an accident and I was—I was a mess with worry, honestly.”

A boat putters past, and Kaida jumps and dives at Vasilisa, burying her nose in Vasilisa’s wet fur. Victor remains, patiently, silent, and Yuuri takes another deep breath.

“I was in the hospital waiting room with that girl. She tried to hug me, to comfort me, but I pushed her away without even thinking about it.”

“Why?” Victor asks, when Yuuri stops for a beat too long.

“I didn’t want her to think I was unsettled. I felt like she was… intruding on my feelings, or getting too close to me, or, or—or treating me like I was weak. Something like that. And I _hated_ it. Later, I was thinking about it, and... I realized that everyone else in my life—Minako, Yuuko, Takeshi, Phichit, my family… they don’t treat me like I’m a weakling. They all—they all have faith in me, that I’d keep growing as a person, but they never stepped over the line.”

“Yuuri… you’re not weak.” Victor says this softly, but it’s the conviction in his voice that startles Yuuri. “No one else thinks so, either.”

Silence falls between them, and they stare out at their daemons, who are frolicking in the shallows, despite the chilly weather.

“What do you want me to be to you?” Victor asks suddenly, out of nowhere. Yuuri is blindsided. “A father figure?”

“No,” Yuuri replies, almost before he’s had time to process it.

“A brother, then? A friend?”

“No,” Yuuri says. _More,_ he thinks.

“So your significant other, then.”

Yuuri’s heart skips a beat, painfully.

“No! No, no, no, I—” He stops for a second, because he needs to put his thoughts in order, because—yes. Yes, he wants—he wants Victor. He wants to have Victor there with him, he wants to talk to him, he wants to run through choreography and talk about the merits of particular jumps and watch Victor skate. But he also wants to know Victor’s favorite food even when his diet won’t let him eat it, and he wants to have his ideas verbally torn to shreds, and he wants to accompany Victor on walks with Makkachin even if it’s 7 A.M., and—

And that’s the the thing. He wants Victor because he’s _Victor_ , not because Victor’s trying to appease him or to—to make him a better skater, or whatever he might have intended by that comment.

“I want you to be _you_ , Victor!” Yuuri says. Somehow, he’s standing, and Kaida and Vasilisa have come back. Kaida’s weight leaning against his calf is grounding. Victor finally turns to look at Yuuri, eyes wide. “I want you to be you. I’ve always looked up to you. And… these past few days… I only ignored you because I didn’t want you to see how b—I didn’t want you to see my shortcomings.” Yuuri ducks his head as he says that, pointedly not making eye contact. “But I promise, I’ll make it up to you with my skating!”

There’s a soft chuckle, and then an outstretched hand makes its way into Yuuri’s field of vision. “Okay then,” Victor says, “I won’t go easy on you. That’ll be _my_ way of showing my love.”

Yuuri takes Victor’s hand, silent and amazed. Usually, only Phichit is able to parse apart Yuuri’s train of thought, and yet here Victor is.

_Whenever I open up, he meets me where I am._

Vasilisa walks forward, and gently licks Kaida’s nose.

_I shouldn’t be afraid to open up more._

Kaida licks Vasilisa back.

* * *

“She’s agreed to redo the music!” Yuuri is practically vibrating as he tells Victor the news. Kaida actually _is_ vibrating. Victor smiles, though Vasilisa puts a paw on Kaida’s face, slowing down her hopping.

“Good, I look forward to it.” Victor nods, and Yuuri nods back.

“Um—until the music comes in, I need you to teach me jumps!” Yuuri states. He’s blushing, he can feel it, but Victor’s smile only broadens.

“Alright. We’ll start today.”

* * *

“I’ve thought this for a while,” Victor says, doubled over and panting against the wall of the rink, “But you have incredible stamina.”

Yuuri blinks at him. “We’ve only gone through it thirteen times,” he replies. “I can do at least a few more.”

“Only thirteen times,” Victor mutters, head dropping. He continues muttering while he cleans off his skates, but Yuuri’s not paying attention, focused instead on the whorl on the crown of Victor’s head, where his hair, for lack of better word, starts.

Yuuri pokes it.

Victor freezes.

“Ah—! Sorry, sorry! I didn’t—I just couldn’t help myself!” Yuuri scrambles backwards as best he can in skates.

“Is it really getting that thin,” Victor says, devoid of inflection. He doesn’t even bother looking up.

“No, no! It’s fine! Everything’s okay!” Yuuri says, emphatically shaking his head. Victor nonetheless droops onto the ice, until he’s little more than a prone lump.

“I’m hurt… I can’t recover from this…” he says, and Vasilisa springs over the wall of the ice rink, landing next to Victor and sniffing at him. Then she imitates him, dramatically collapsing on top of Victor and pinning him to the ice.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Yuuri shouts, bowing equally dramatically, and Kaida finally joins the fray, running in circles around them all. “Please get up!”

* * *

There’s a yelp and a hiss as Yuuri jumps onto the bed, and Makkachin slinks off with a betrayed expression. Victor sits bolt upright, though his eyes are still half closed, and Vasilisa is staring at Yuuri with flattened ears and wide eyes. Yuuri doesn’t care, though, and holds the earbuds to Victor’s ears.

He presses play, and watches as Victor slowly wakes up more and more as the music continues to play. By the end, he’s smiling broadly, and the nod he gives Yuuri has Yuuri fist-pumping the air.

* * *

Victor taps his pen against the small notebook they’ve been using to keep track of Yuuri’s required technical elements. They’ve been modifying the choreography order to fit better with the new version of the music. Yuuri waits patiently for whatever Victor’s about to say, because by now he knows Victor’s expressions, and this one speaks of being lost in calculating thought.

“If you want more impact… what if we changed your last jump to a quad toe?” Victor finally asks.

“Huh?” Yuuri says.

“The _last_ one?” Kaida asks. Victor nods.

“With Yuuri’s stamina, I think he can pull it off. Unless,” Victor says, leaning into Yuuri’s space. “You’d rather not?”

“I’ll do it!” Yuuri returns instantly. Victor grins, teeth showing. His expression reminds Yuuri of Vasilisa, if just for a moment. Then it’s gone.

“Okay,” Victor says, but his voice is laced with approval. He starts to head towards the lockers, but stops and looks back at Yuuri. “Oh, I wanted to ask—did you change the theme of your music?”

“Ah,” Yuuri says, running a hand through the hair at the nape of his neck.

“What is it?” Victor asks, head tilted.

“It’s ‘with regards to my love’,” Yuuri says. He’s worried, for a second—not that Victor will outright dislike it, but that he’ll think it’s—Yuuri doesn’t even know what he’s worried about. That Victor will think it’s too childish? But the soft smile that spreads on Victor’s face allays Yuuri’s fears.

“That’s the best theme,” Victor says, his voice equally soft. At his feet, Vasilisa rubs her head against his thigh. “It’s perfect.”

* * *

There's an unofficial family-and-then-some dinner on the night that the Grand Prix assignments are announced. Yuuri isn't invited so much as he is forced into a chaos- and confetti-filled living room. The Nishigori family in its entirety is there, and Kaida gets mobbed by three arctic fox puppies the second she steps foot through the doorway. Minako's also there, somehow waving another infernal banner— _why does she always have banners_ —as are Mari and Yuuri's parents.

And of course Victor, who pats the area next to him that's not taken up by either a snow leopard or a dog in a clear invitation to Yuuri.

“Thanks…” Yuuri says, leaving the _I think_ … part silent. He pulls a few confetti from his hair.

Then his parents and Mari get An Introduction To Figure Skating, The Slideshow, presented by the triplets, and finally, Yuuri’s told his assignments.

“Yuuri will be competing in the third event, the Cup of China!” says Loop.

“And Yuuri’s former rinkmate, Phichit, will also be there!” says Axel. Yuuri brightens at the mention of Phichit, and Kaida gives a little jump of excitement.

“And his second event will be Russia’s Rostelecom Cup!” says Lutz. “And there Yuuri will face his fated rival, Yuri Plisetsky!” This time, Yuuri groans.

Makkachin seems to pick up on the excited atmosphere in the room, and whines. Victor comforts him, telling him that he’ll be tending to the house while they’re away, and Yuuri realizes something.

_This will be my first year competing without Victor in the Grand Prix lineup._

As if they could hear his thoughts, Takeshi and Yuuko are the next to speak.

“When you show up with Victor as your coach, I bet people are going to think you stole him from the sport!” says Takeshi.

“Ooh, the whole skating world’s going to hate you!” Yuuri’s face must be something awful, because Yuuko hastily tacks on, “But of course we fully support you, Yuuri!”

“Definitely!” Minako adds, and Reiji twirls around behind her. “We’ll be coming out there to support you! I even have my banners already made!” she says, waving the banner in question. “First up is Cup of China!”

“Wait a minute,” says Lutz. Her daemon, perched on her head, lets out a whistle.

“Last year, Yuuri, in Nationals…” says Axel, her daemon held in her arms, and Yuuri suddenly knows where they’re going with this.

“I think I finished eleventh because I messed up my prep,” Yuuri says.

“Oh,” says Yuuko.

“So you have to go and compete in the regional competitions again,” finishes Takeshi.

Victor, who’s been silent so far, leans onto Yuuri. “What’s going on?” he asks, and Yuuri berates himself for not translating sooner. Victor’s Japanese is coming along, but it’s not quite at the level necessary to follow their conversation yet.

“Ah, sorry, we’re just talking about the domestic competitions,” he says.

“Since he did so badly in Nationals last year,” Yuuko says cheerily in English, her tone and her words very clashing in Yuuri’s mind, “he has to work his way back up from the bottom, with all the qualifying matches! So his first _actual_ competition this year is the Chu-Shikoku-Kyushu Regional Championship! It’ll be his comeback competition!”

"You're our top skater, any domestic competition is going to be easy as pie for you!" Takeshi says cheerfully, slapping Yuuri’s shoulder hard enough that Yuuri thinks it will leave a mark.. Saya sits on Kaida. Yuuri thinks it must be meant as a loving gesture.

“Oh, but Minami Kenjirou will be competing there!” says Loop.

“Yeah, he beat Yuuri in Nationals last year!” Lutz adds.

“He’ll be fine,” Takeshi asserts, patting Yuuri again, though softer, this time.

Yuuri smiles wanly at Takeshi. _Takeshi’s always honest_ , he thinks, and tries to make himself believe it. "Yeah..." he says, and tries to not let the impending wave of anxiety drown him.

* * *

“Yuuri! Try to dance more like you’re seducing me!” Victor yells out over the ice, one day at practice.

Yuuri stumbles over his subsequent step sequence, but adjusts himself quickly. What Victor’s telling him makes sense, considering the story of the piece, but still.

Does he have to say it like that?

* * *

Yuuri thinks about last season, and this season, and how this season is his last season, a lot. He’d already made up his mind months ago, back when he’d just won Hot Springs on Ice, that this was going to be it.

He slowly peels his socks off, and even Kaida winces as he does so—he’s burst a blister, and is bleeding somewhere else, and the soft fabric of his socks sticks to the wounds. It stings.

“Yuuri,” Kaida says softly, shuffling closer. A fluffy clump of shed brown fur drops to the floor, dissolving quickly into Dust. “You have to be more careful.”

Yuuri grunts, busying himself with the application of antiseptic. It’s not that he doesn’t want to take care of himself; it’s just that, when he’s on the ice… everything else seems to fall away. Yes, his feet _hurt_ , but it’s bearable. Yes, his hips and knees are covered in bruises from falling, and yes, sometimes his legs tremble so much he can barely skate straight, but—the ice.

He loves it.

Yuuri finishes applying the paste, and leans back on the bench to let it dry, his attention wandering until it settles on the TV. It strikes him that it was here, in this very room, where Yuuri first decided that skating wasn’t only going to be a hobby for him. Here, in this room, as he watched Victor Nikiforov advancing through the ranks of international skating.

Victor.

Yuuri sighs, leaning back forward, pressing his elbows to his knees and the heels of his hands to his eyes, shoving his glasses up. Kaida jumps up into his lap, wiggling to fit in the space under his chin.

 _Please, God_ , he thinks. _I don’t know how long Victor will stay around, or how long my body will hold up._

Kaida wiggles again, and Yuuri shifts to hold her tight, fighting back tears.

_So please, God—let me have Victor, even if it’s just for now._

* * *

His title for the song—a title he and Kaida have spent many a night mulling over—gets Victor’s go-ahead, and Yuuri feels the approval settle comfortably in his chest.

He’s got a good feeling about this.

* * *

Yuuri's pretty sure Tokyo is the only reason he has two days off this close to the start of the season. Not that he's complaining—he needs a moment away from the quad Salchow. At least long enough for his bruises to actually fade before being renewed.

"Stupid jump," he mutters.

"Mmhm," Kaida returns, yawning. She looks as tired as Yuuri feels—their train is an early one.

Makkachin gets left with Yuuri's parents, partially because of the train travel ("she doesn't like it") and partially because the hotel they were planning on staying in didn't allow pets ("absolutely ridiculous"). Victor, for his part, has the audacity to fall asleep on Yuuri's shoulder, Vasilisa curled into a ball at his feet. He doesn't rouse until they arrive at Kyoto for their first connection. Yuuri, quite honestly, doesn't feel awake enough to handle this.

By the time they arrive in Tokyo, the city is full bustle, a veritable menagerie. It's crowded enough that not touching another's daemon becomes a real struggle, and Yuuri zips Kaida into the front of his jacket to try and avoid just that. Victor eyes Vasilisa, looking like he wants to do the same, but she's too large, and ends up having to settle for evasive acrobatics.

They check into their hotel—just the one room, on account of "we have to get used to each other for when competition season starts!"—and then Yuuri is dragged into playing interpreter as they hit up the most famous of Tokyo's districts.

Though, he's not even sure he's needed anymore, when it comes down to it—Victor's picked up quite a bit of Japanese by now, just trying to breach the language barrier with Yuuri's parents. Yuuri smiles a bit watching Victor try to ask something to an employee, before he gives up and calls Yuuri over.

They go to Mount Fuji the next day. Victor and Vasilisa have decided they want to hike it, and so all four of them are up early enough that the clouds covering the sky are still more black than grey, lacing up sneakers and packing backpacks Yuuri didn't even know Victor had with food.

In the end, they don't make it very far—they reach a touristy viewing point just as it starts to pour, and, umbrellas or ponchos apparently being the one thing they didn't pack, take refuge under the eaves of the gift-shop-slash-restaurant. They're all a bit wet, and Yuuri and Victor are hungry, so they snack standing up until both their food and the rain are gone.  

As crowds of tourists slowly begin to reappear, Victor grabs Yuuri's hand and drags him over to an outlook. The skies have partially cleared, now, and overlooking the bay as they are, they can see a stream of sunlight filtering down to the water. It's very photogenic, and Yuuri snaps a picture to send to Phichit.

He turns back to Victor after a minute, only to see Victor looking at him, a few small wrinkles in the corners of his eyes. Yuuri doesn't know how to interpret that look.

"What?" he asks, holding Kaida a bit tighter in his arms.

"Nothing," Victor replies. Vasilisa continues to stare, her pale eyes looking blue in the light, but Victor turns back out to the view, a small, wry smile on his face.

The wind blows back his bangs, and it makes him look younger. Wild, like his daemon; and yet serene, in a way both godly and all too human.

After a few seconds Victor notices that Yuuri's still looking, and raises an eyebrow at him. "What?" he asks, tone making it clear he's imitating Yuuri from earlier.

Yuuri blushes. "Nothing," he says, too quickly, and wonders why he's blushing.

In his arms, Kaida wriggles.

* * *

The change of seasons is marked, for Yuuri, as it always is, by the dual indicators of Kaida’s fur and proximity to competition.

As the end of September approaches, Kaida is left with only a few clumps of brown fur, stubbornly peeking out through the longer, pure white that is her winter coat.

Yuuri thinks it’s fitting that Kaida always looks the most suited to ice when Yuuri himself is required to compete on it.

* * *

Yuuri has a panic attack the week before the competition.

He mostly manages to hide it from Victor and Vasilisa.

Yuuri feels guilty about this, especially after their talk on the beach, but the thought of Victor seeing him at his worst is still… worse; so Yuuri sits down and shuts up and lets Kaida lick away his tears in silence.

He catches them sending concerned glances towards him and Kaida every once in a while, but writes the lingering symptoms off as a cold, and holds to that, until Victor and Vasilisa are forced to accept it.

Or at least, to not question further.

* * *

Of course he draws first.

Of _course_ he does.

* * *

The first day of competition is always the worst. Between Victor’s overconfident interviews and Minami’s misplaced fanboying, the pressure Yuuri feels is constricting. Up til right before his skate, Kaida’s reminders to breathe deeply are probably the only thing keeping Yuuri from outright collapsing.

By the time warmups are over, Yuuri is breathing a bit easier—skating always works wonders for him in that sense, at least—but he’s still tense, and his mind hasn’t calmed at all. His nervousness is even rubbing off on Kaida, and given that he relies on her to keep a level head for the both of them, it doesn’t bode well. He takes a sip from his water, struggling with swallowing around the lump in his throat.

“Yuuri, turn around,” Victor orders, looking annoyed.

“Huh? Why?”

“Just do it!”

When Yuuri finally does, he’s folded into a warm embrace. Camera flashes reflect off the ice.

“Seduce me with all you have,” Victor says, his voice low and measured in Yuuri’s ear. “If your performance can charm me, you can enthrall the entire audience. That’s what I always say in practice, isn’t it?”

“R—right.”

Somehow, inexplicably, that’s enough to calm Yuuri enough that he doesn’t feel like there’s a buzzing in his head anymore.

 _Just skate like you do in practice,_ he tells himself.

* * *

He gets scolded by Victor for his sloppy jumps.

And reminded, bluntly, that his coach is actually the current world-record holder in both the short program and the free skate, and could probably skate Yuuri’s routine better than he could, half asleep and with one hand tied behind his back.

It’s disheartening.

Kaida nips his hand to bring him out of that train of thought, just in time to catch Victor telling him to lower the jump difficulty in his free skate tomorrow. Yuuri disagrees, but Victor slams him with coaching logic, and then they settle in to do interviews and watch the rest of the skaters.  

* * *

Yuuri does have one saving grace, though, and that is the field.

The field is—well, Yuuri’ll be honest with himself. The field isn’t deep. The skaters are good, yes, they have to be to get to that level—Minami, especially, makes a splash, thrilling the audience with his cheerful performance—but they’re also young, and Yuuri has five years of competition experience on the oldest of them.

Even through his nerves, Yuuri out-skates them all.

 _And by a wide margin, too_ , comes the gentle reminder from Kaida, as they stare at the scores that night.

“You’ve got this,” she says out loud.

“And if I don’t?” he asks, mind flashing to the Grand Prix.

Evidently Kaida’s thinking the same thing. “Then that’s that,” she replies.

Yuuri exhales slowly. “Then that’s that,” he echoes, and tries to get at least some sleep before tomorrow.

* * *

As the skater in first place, he goes last, which means he has to wait and watch all the other competitors skate first. The knowledge rests uneasy in the pit of his stomach.

Yuuri gets scolded by Victor again during warmups, this time for, in Kaida’s words, being a dick to children. Victor’s right, though, and when it’s Minami’s turn to skate, Yuuri shouts out his encouragement, and Kaida goes as far as sneaking into the competing daemons’ area of the rink and giving Minami’s ermine daemon a quick, foxy hug.

Yuuri watches some of Minami’s skating, but then Yuuri ducks out of the rink in general, stretching in the hallway.

All going last means to Yuuri is that he has more time to completely freak out about his program, and his skating, and himself and his (lack of) worth as a person, and—“Ow!”

Kaida bares her teeth at him. Not threateningly, but just as a reminder to _stop fucking thinking like that, Yuuri._ He wonders if other people’s souls get as exasperated with their people as Kaida does with him. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, of course, but—

Kaida’s teeth get flashed again, and Yuuri stops thinking, choosing instead to head up to the roof. He finishes stretching up in the fresh air, occasionally stopping to stroke Kaida’s fur. As his warmup playlist runs down to the end, Vasilisa appears, and Victor shortly after her, summoning them back down to the rink.

Victor gives him some lip balm, Vasilisa gives Kaida a cheerful head rub, and then it’s Yuuri’s turn.

He gives Minami a slap on the back before heading out onto the ice.

Then he’s gliding, dancing on his blades, and the rest of the world drops away.

* * *

And then Yuuri’s done, and his forehead hurts and his nose hurts and feels itchy and wet and he thinks his eyes might be watering, but he holds his closing pose until the music dies completely down.

He’s honestly a bit shocked at the amount of cheers coming from the crowd.

He drops pose and waves at them, and then, sheepishly, turns back to Victor. He deflates a little. Victor’s standing with a serious expression, his arms crossed in front of him and half his face obscured by his bangs, and for a moment Yuuri’s worried he’s really upset him. He rubs the back of his neck.

Then Victor pushes his bangs back, and looks straight at Yuuri with a determined expression. And then he opens his arms.

It takes Yuuri half a second to process, but when he realizes Victor’s offering him a hug, he breaks into a wide smile, borne by the relief of Victor’s lack of anger, and skates forwards with a skip, gaining speed until he gets close enough to make a jump for it.

Victor moves out of the way at the last second, pulling his arms into a gesture of surrender. “Watch the blood,” he says cheerily, as Yuuri lies on the ground where he’s fallen, most of his body throbbing in time with his heart.

Yuuri wonders, as Kaida jumps on top of him and begins to lick every bit of his face she can reach, if Victor will always be this way at the end of a competition.

 _Probably_ , he hears Kaida’s mental voice say.

 _Oh well_ , Yuuri thinks back. He smiles a bit as Victor squats down next to him, waving a hand in front of Yuuri’s face, Vasilisa peering concerned over his shoulder. _It’s worth it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> firstly, translations:  
> 1\. สวัสดี ครับ: S̄wạs̄dī khrạb: hello [male]  
> 2\. ขอบคุณครับ: k̄hxbkhuṇ khrạb: thank you [male]  
> the words were lifted directly from yoi ep 4, but the script/latinization comes from the google translate overlord :') if i messed anything up here lemme know, yes?
> 
> secondly--Rhea314 has done a podfic for hollow ground, and it is AMAZING!!!! ~~i listened to it like 3 times on my flight lmao~~ but it's linked... somewhere around here so like 10/10 would listen again!
> 
> The daemons:  
> Yuuri Katsuki: Kaida, arctic fox  
> Victor Nikiforov: Vasilisa, snow leopard  
> Phichit Chulanont: Naak, sunda pangolin  
> Yuuko Nishigori: Airi, river otter  
> Takeshi Nishigori: Saya, akita inu  
> Toshiya Katsuki: Mimori, shiba inu  
> Hiroko Katsuki: Iteru, rabbit  
> Mari Katsuki: Yoshiro, crow  
> Minako Okukawa: Reiji, red-crowned crane  
> Yuri Plisetsky: Yekaterina, unsettled  
> Minami Kenjirou: no name given, ermine


	4. iv.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, finally the scene that inspired this whole fic!!! see if you can tell which it is, i actually wrote it before writing anything else ;)

“Yuuri, have you given any thought to an exhibition skate?”

Yuuri says “No,” at the same time that Kaida, lounging on a pillow she’s dragged off the couch, says, “Yes.”

Victor raises his eyebrows at them, and Vasilisa somehow manages the same.

Kaida gives Yuuri a glance, and he has just long enough for him to bury his face in his hands before she turns and exposes him.

“ _W_ _e_ were thinking,” she says, with a pointed glance back at Yuuri, “that we could skate your free skate program from last year.”

Yuuri peeks out from between his fingers. Victor’s mouth is actually open in shock, a small “o”, and unless Yuuri’s imagining it, Victor’s cheeks are also dusted faintly with pink. Vasilisa, after a second, walks over to Kaida and lays down on top of her with a loud rumbling sound—no, a loud purr.

“I would—we would—” Victor says, and Yuuri drops his hands. He’s never seen Victor so speechless. Victor clears his throat, then leans over and places a hand on top of Yuuri’s, where it rests on his knee. “I would be honored. Really.”

Yuuri tries not to lose himself in the smile Victor’s giving him.

* * *

The choice of costume is a joint one, and when it comes in, Yuuri almost wishes _Stammi Vicino_ were one of his competition programs, just so he could be guaranteed to wear it.

“It’s beautiful,” he breathes.

“Mmhm,” Victor agrees. When Yuuri looks up, Victor’s already smiling at him.

* * *

Time seems to blur as they get closer to the Cup of China. There’s only two weeks left, the results from Skate America were announced last night, Kaida’s twitchy, and Yuuri—Yuuri is a wreck.

He’s weak mentally, that’s always been his problem, and it’s also always manifested in the same way—a complete inability to land any and all jumps. There’s the maybe-exception of the triple axel, but right now, laying on the ice for the umpteenth time, Yuuri wouldn’t even be surprised if he couldn’t land _that._

“Alright, we’re done for today,” Victor says, his skates slicing the ice close to Yuuri. Yuuri protests feebly, but doesn’t move.

“No, I’m not—” Yuuri closes his mouth. _I can still feel my legs, my feet don’t hurt enough to stop yet, I’m not_ tired _enough to stop skating yet,_ he wants to say. _I can’t get this awful buzzing out of my head and only the ice can help and please don’t make me stop I need to—_

“Don’t worry, I won’t make you get off the ice. Practice your exhibition piece.”

Yuuri heaves a sigh of relief, and then pulls himself to his feet. He dusts off his sweatpants and stretches, and then starts to move towards center ice.

“And, Yuuri,” Victor says, grabbing Yuuri’s wrist and preventing him from skating off. His eyes are piercing, but his voice is soft. “Skate as much as you need to, but don’t use it to punish yourself.”

And then Victor’s gone, gliding away effortlessly, and Yuuri is left in the middle of the rink, feeling bared to his soul. Then he chuckles a bit. Trust Victor to say something like that.

“I won’t!” he calls out, and sees his slight smile mirrored by Victor. “But can you put on the music?”

* * *

They watch Skate Canada as a group in Yu-topia. It’s loud and rowdy, several random guests also joining in, and the triplets have a way of comparing the competition to Yuuri that completely inflates Yuuri’s actual skill level.

 _He’s_ not the resident skating god; that title belongs solely to Victor. Yuuri's stomach twists, and he spends the rest of the evening playing with the long fur around Kaida’s neck.

Later, as he and Victor are soaking in the hot springs, Victor interrupts his tirade on the geopolitics of climate change—it’s the topic of his latest book; Yuuri is usually fascinated by the way Victor’s thought process works, but tonight he’s too focused on imminent failure to be a good conversation partner—to put a hand on Yuuri’s shoulder and look him in the eye.

“If you’re worried about the king guy, don’t be—I mean, he’s good enough to give me a run for the gold just based on base value alone, but I think you’ll do fine! You have more experience, anyways.”

Yuuri stares at Victor. “Is that supposed to be _helping_ me?” he asks. Victor doesn’t look like he’d thought that far.

Yuuri contemplates the feasibility of drowning himself in the hot spring while Victor stammers out what might be an apology.

* * *

Their training session is winding down for the day, and Yuuri asks Victor to put on _Stammi Vicino._ In the end, it was probably good they’d decided to stick with this as the exhibition piece— _if_ Yuuri even needs an exhibition skate, that is. Yuuri still remembers how the Grand Prix went for him last time, even if Victor doesn’t seem to—because skating it is calming. It reminds him of the days him and Kaida spent fooling around on empty ice, of the emotional healing Yuuri was able to do then. It also won’t require too much practice to brush up to a displayable level, which is a bonus.

Yuuri lands the first jump, having downgraded it from a quad to a triple as he often does—no need to overexert himself in an exhibition skate, after all—when he hears the sounds of another pair of skates behind him. He glances over his shoulder at Victor, and starts to slow down, but Victor shakes his head.

"Keep skating like you normally would," Victor says. "I'll match."

For a moment Yuuri's tense, nervous about Victor sharing the ice in such a different way than normal, but as he picks up speed again, the soothing notes of the aria seep back into him. The tension unfurls. Yuuri lands one more jump, and then starts on the step sequence—and then Victor truly joins him.

Victor glides in and around Yuuri, his every action graceful and complementary. He lands light touches on Yuuri—a gentle squeeze of his hand here, a feather-light stroke down his shoulder there, and so many soft caresses. Yuuri's glad muscle memory keeps him from wiping out, because the attention is intoxicating.

They split apart to go into spins, and Yuuri can only just see Victor, for a few milliseconds every turn, but they seem synchronized. Yuuri _feels_ synchronized; he wonders if Victor hears his heart as clearly as Yuuri does his own.

They move into the last segment of the program, coming out of the spins and into a smooth backward glide, and Victor catches Yuuri's hips and they move together, a closeness that has nothing to do with physical proximity.

Victor lets go for the lead-up to the final jump; Yuuri tries for the quad, and lands it. He skates towards the center, and Victor intercepts him, and they spin slowly around each other once, twice, a third time, increasingly slow as the music dies off, but with no less urgency; there's something calling them together, something large and unnamable and _thrumming_ —

—and then the music's gone and the only sounds are their panting breaths echoing around the rink. They're holding each other, Yuuri's arms around Victor's neck and Victor's hands on Yuuri's waist.

Yuuri's heartbeat is deafening as he makes eye contact with Victor, senses that the _thrum_ is as much in Victor as it is in him.

“Can I kiss you?” Victor asks. Many have said that Victor is made of ice, casual cruelty and a closed-off, too-wild daemon to match, but in this moment Yuuri thinks it would be more appropriate to say that Victor is made of fire.

“Yes,” Yuuri answers, because sometimes he’d like to believe that he, too, can burn.

And so they kiss, on the ice, sweaty and out of breath, and Yuuri has never felt so _right_.

(Later, sequestered into his room, he pulls out the posters from where he'd hidden them under his bed. He and Kaida look through them all, both silent, taking in the sight of Victor and Vasilisa printed in glossy ink and comparing these idols to the skater and daemon they've come to know. Yuuri takes it upon himself to speak what they’re both thinking.

"How did we manage to pull this one off?"

"Oh, I'd say you always had it in you," Kaida says after a moment, smirking at him, and then shrugs. "I did tell you I liked Vasilisa."

Yuuri only grunts in response, before hiding the posters away again and falling back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Kaida crawls onto his chest, a reassuring weight, and Yuuri lets himself relive the memory of the kiss until he's blushing.

"Regardless of how, though," Kaida muses, her voice just managing to avoid a yawn, "I'd say we did good."

"Mm," Yuuri answers, raising a hand to scratch her behind the ears. "That we did.")

* * *

Phichit and Naak keep them on Skype for two and a half hours when Yuuri breaks the news.

Yuuri categorically refuses to send him any kind of photo.

* * *

Two days of practice—two agonizingly long days of practice in which Kaida and Vasilisa are even more one-on-top-of-the-other than they usually are, and Victor touches Yuuri _constantly_ , and that’s not even mentioning the _kisses_ —and Yuuri breaks.

He grabs his pillow, storms over to Victor’s bedroom, throws open the door—the dramatic effect of which is spoiled by Kaida wagging her tail like a dog at the sight of Vasilisa, even though they last saw each other not even two hours ago—and points at Victor.

“I’m sleeping here tonight,” Yuuri says, stubbornly fighting down the heat in his cheeks. Victor, holding a book loosely in his hands, is staring at Yuuri with his mouth slightly open. Yuuri’s just about to turn and flee when Victor sets down the book and springs over, pressing his mouth urgently to Yuuri’s.

“Yes, please,” Victor says, and even Yuuri can’t deny that the look on Victor’s face is one of pure adoration.

Yuuri fluffs his pillow and settles under the covers while Victor goes to brush his teeth, and when Victor comes back there’s a bit of positioning to do so that no one’s uncomfortable or in danger of unwanted daemon touching, but in the end they manage it. Makkachin is curled at their feet, Vasilisa is stretched out against Victor's back, Kaida pressed against Yuuri’s chest, and Yuuri is pressed to Victor’s.

Yuuri’s warm and content, and the last thing he feels before falling fast asleep is the row of soft kisses Victor presses to the nape of his neck.

* * *

It’s three days to the Cup of China when it happens. Yuuri steps out of the shower and doesn’t see Kaida, which in and of itself isn’t necessarily weird—she does her own thing sometimes, and she’s probably in his room, anyways.

Only, as he’s about to exit the bathroom, he sees a fluffy tail through his open bedroom door, and it’s not Kaida’s.

Yuuri enters his room to see Victor crouched down, Vasilisa crowded next to him with her long tail trailing out towards the door, and Kaida in a corner, paws over her eyes.

“Yuuri,” Victor says, still hunched over. Kaida is suspiciously silent. Then Victor turns around, and he’s beaming so hard Yuuri almost doesn’t notice what he has clutched in his hands.

_Almost._

Unfortunately, though, Yuuri _does_ notice, and he proceeds to let himself gently onto the floor, staring off into the distance with a dazed expression. Victor seems to consider this action, pursing his lips, and then brightens up. He waves the fistful of Victor Nikiforov posters.

“I can _sign_ them for you!”

Yuuri’s groan is muffled by the tatami.

* * *

“Makkachin, don’t eat any steamed buns!” Victor says. He gives the dog one last hug—Makkachin then gets one from Vasilisa as well—and then they’re finally out the door.

“Alright then, we’re off!” Yuuri says, his heart light. His gathered family and friends all wave at him, various jumbled cries of luck and ‘we’ll be cheering for you’. Minako and Reiji will meet them in Beijing, and Yuuri knows his mother has already planned a watching party.

Victor and Yuuri fall asleep in the plane with their hands clasped.

* * *

They’re cornered by the press as soon as they leave the ice after the first day of practice. The reporters are unusually rowdy, enough so that even Vasilisa’s broken her usual impassivity, ears flat down against her skull.

“Let’s go eat hot pot already,” Victor whines, leaning in to Yuuri’s shoulder.

“I’m… in the middle of interviews, Victor,” Yuuri replies. Victor sighs dramatically, but then perks up and darts after someone—Yakov, probably, judging by the wolverine daemon. Yuuri shakes his head and turns back to the reporters. “I’ll take one more question?”

“Yuuri, sir! You announced earlier this year that your theme was ‘love’ and that you would use the ‘power of love’ to make it to the Grand Prix Final—can you elaborate on that?”

Yuuri watches Victor out of the corner of his eye, and turns fully when he realizes Victor is heading back. Kaida bumps his leg, and that’s when Yuuri realizes he still hasn’t answered the reporter.

“Ah, well,” Yuuri hedges, turning back to the microphones. “They say that love works in mysterious ways.” Yuuri feels Victor wrap an arm around his shoulder. “I guess I’m just hoping it works in my favor.”

* * *

Hot pot dinner is chaos.

Or, well, it doesn’t start off chaotic—just Yuuri and Kaida and Victor and Vasilisa. And then Phichit shows up with Naak—and boy, has Yuuri ever missed them—and _they_ invite Celestino and Cecilia, and then Yuuri gets distracted by both his former coach and his present coach’s antics (foaming at the mouth and stripping, respectively) but at some point Leo de la Iglesia and Guang-hong Ji—two of the younger skaters in the circuit—show up, and they and their daemons are watching the proceedings with something akin to trepidation.

“Ah, sorry,” Yuuri says, pulling Victor’s arm away from his neck. “Victor’s had a bit too much to drink…” As if to prove his point, Vasilisa chooses that moment to sit up, swaying unsteadily. She has a bowl on her head like a helmet. Leo’s bobcat daemon makes a noise that might have been a laugh.

Yuuri eyes their phones, wondering if he should be making an effort to confiscate them. But that would have to include Phichit, and prying Phichit’s phone away from him is a task not even the great heroes of old could succeed at—and Yuuri’s learned to pick his battles. He tries for a different angle.

“Phichit, not a single one of these photos online!”

“Not a one,” Phichit sing-songs back, snapping another two or twenty.

In between bouts of overly-affectionate Victor (whom the kind waitstaff are making a point of ignoring), Phichit and Yuuri manage to partially catch up, and Yuuri gets to know Guang-hong and Leo a bit better. Eventually, though, it’s time to go. Phichit wrestles Celestino out the door, Cecilia tottering after them with the support of Naak, and Leo and Guang-hong take their leave once Yuuri assures him that he’ll manage just fine.

“Okay,” Yuuri tells Victor, manhandling him into his underwear. Months of hot spring soakings have made Yuuri practically immune to the sight of Victor naked, which is just as well, because there is a time and place for lingering on his aesthetic attraction to Victor and now is not it. Now is force-Victor-into-clothes-so-they-can-leave-the-restaurant-with-a-modicum-of-dignity time.

“Hey, hey, Kaida,” Victor says blearily, hanging off of Yuuri’s shoulder as Yuuri struggles to get his trousers on, “Make sure— _hic_ —sure that Vassa comes. Otherwise— _hic_ —she stays here! All alone!”

The weight of what he’s just been told sinks into Yuuri’s stomach, and he exchanges a glance with Kaida as Victor devolves into Russian. The two of them make a silent agreement to ignore it for the time being and focus on getting back to the hotel.

* * *

Victor—somehow, miraculously, not hungover Victor—is bustling about the hotel room, changing both the channel and his clothes every five minutes or so. Or maybe Vasilisa took the brunt of the hangover—she's currently doing her best impression of sleep on Victor's bed.

Yuuri decides that he might as well ask now.

"Victor?"

"Yes?"

"Are you and Vasilisa separated?"

Victor stops moving. Yuuri regrets asking.

"I'm—I'm sorry," Yuuri mumbles out.

"Don't be," Victor says. "It's not as though half the world hasn't already speculated." He says it bitterly, and Yuuri is struck once again by how much Victor dislikes the showmanship that has been required of him.

Yuuri stays quiet, unsure of how to respond to that. If he even _should_ respond to that. Neither Victor nor Vasilisa make any move to speak, either.

It's Kaida who finally breaks the silence.

"Why?"

Vasilisa stares at her, an inscrutable, predatorial gaze, but Kaida is no prey animal, and she isn't cowed. Yuuri wants to follow it up, tell Victor and Vasilisa that they don't have to explain if they don't want to—but the question's already out there, asked by his own soul. Yuuri lets it hang.

Finally, Vasilisa stops staring, and exchanges instead a glance with Victor. He sighs.

"You handle this one, Vassochka," he says.

Vasilisa blinks at him, long and slow, before turning back to Yuuri and Kaida.

"It was a training accident," she says. This is the first time Yuuri hears her voice, and it is soft and rumbling, like a purr threatening to happen. Her accent is less pronounced than Victor's.

"We were ten. We wanted to get better.” Vasilisa pauses for a second, and Kaida and Yuuri exchange a glance. That part of the story is familiar. Then she continues. “The way to do that, as you know, is to separate yourself as much as you can, and practice until the pain of distance either fades or takes a backseat to your muscle memory. You’re meant to do it slowly. Gradually.

“We didn’t believe in taking it slow. We had only been training at distance for a month when we decided it was time to stop practicing basic figures and start practicing jumps.” Yuuri feels his stomach twist uncomfortably. “Victor misstepped, and I was on the far side of the rink, too far away to get there in time.”

She falls quiet again, and Victor takes her place in the narration. “My leg had broken at the wrong angle, punctured an artery. We were alone in the rink, and I almost bled out. Doctors said it was a freak accident, a break like that. Luckily for us, Yakov came back to pick up something he’d forgotten, and found—he told me he’d only found me. Vassa was gone, I was barely breathing. I think, if I remember correctly, I died twice on the way to the hospital, too much blood lost and my heart just giving up. Vassochka didn’t show up until hours after I’d stabilized, already settled.” Victor’s fingers, like Yuuri’s, are clenched tightly in his daemon’s fur.

“We didn’t even realize we were separated until after his leg had healed completely and he was pronounced fit to skate again. Only when he reached the far end of the rink without either of us noticing any discomfort did we think to test our bond,” Vasilisa says. “And then we knew.”

Kaida leaves Yuuri’s side and barrels into Vasilisa, burying her nose into Vasilisa’s fur and giving her the fox equivalent of a hug. After a few seconds, Yuuri does the same to Victor.

Victor seems surprised at first, but then he relaxes into the hug, his forehead resting against Yuuri’s collarbone. They stay like that for several minutes, Yuuri running his hands up and down Victor’s spine.

“Yuuri,” Victor says after a while.

“Yes?”

“There’s a lot of misinformation regarding being separated. We can still feel our bond, and share our thoughts, and everything that we could before. We can just do that while being very far apart, is all,” Victor says, his arms tightening slightly around Yuuri’s waist. Like he’s scared. Yuuri hugs him tighter, too.

“I know,” Yuuri says, and when Victor looks up at him, he adds, “You act with her just like me and Kaida act with each other. There’s no way your bond is any lesser.” Victor snuggles even closer. Kaida and Vasilisa have formed one solid ball of fur, wrapped in and around each other. It’s a good reflection of their humans.

“Yuuri?”

“Yes?”

“Can I kiss you?”

“...yes.”

In the back of his mind, Yuuri hears the voices of Takeshi and Yuuko, from before Regionals—how the whole world will hate him for taking Victor away from skating. But Victor’s lips are on Yuuri’s, and Yuuri lets himself be pushed back onto the bed, and all Yuuri can think is: _let them hate me._

* * *

They’re the last to make it to the rink.

“Naak’s guilty of something,” Kaida says the moment they spot her and Phichit from across the entrance hall. Yuuri squints at Phichit, who studiously avoids eye contact.

“Let’s get it over with, I suppose…” Yuuri mutters, and he and Kaida march over. Leo and Guang-hong are also there, looking oddly defensive.

“Hello, Yu—” Phichit starts, but Yuuri cuts him off with an outstretched hand.

“Let’s see it, then,” he says, wearily. Abashed, Phichit unlocks his phone and sets it in Yuuri’s hand.

“I’m sorry,” he says, as Yuuri takes in the picture of him and a very possessive, _very naked_ Victor draped all over him, Phichit making a faux-scandalized expression at the camera.

“Phichit!”

 _Oh, great_ , he thinks. _Now the whole world will think I was fooling around before the competition, and if I fail then they’ll blame it on Victor—_

 _To be fair_ , Kaida thinks at him, thoroughly derailing his train of thought. _It’s not like that’s not what you and Victor were just doing_.

Yuuri hands back Phichit’s phone, and is in the middle of trying to fight down a blush when he hears Kaida make a soft yipping noise, a kind of surprised laugh, and he looks down at her, blinking in confusion. Draped around her neck is an iridescent snake daemon.

 _Vreni_ , his brain supplies, but Yuuri doesn’t know why he would know that name—

—and then there is a _hand_ on his _ass_ and a scruffy cheek pressed up against his own with a kiss.

“Yuuri, why didn’t you invite _me_ to the party?” says a familiar voice, and Yuuri relaxes. Marginally.

“Hello to you too, Chris… and it wasn’t a party, it was just dinner…” he says, shifting out of the way, and Chris’ hand falls back to his side. Chris makes a pouty face, before heaving a sigh and dropping his head in such a way that if his hair were longer, it would have _swooshed_ dramatically.

“It looks like you got in shape, though,” he says. “Good to know your master can give you such thorough training.” He winks at Yuuri. Vreni—if that really is her name—unslings herself from Kaida’s neck and slithers back to Chris.

“Chris, hi!” says Victor, suddenly popping up out of nowhere. He’s dressed for the press, Vasilisa stony silent at his heels, and Yuuri can tell the smile doesn’t reach his eyes. Still, he accepts Chris’ three greeting kisses with grace, even as Chris tugs on his tie.

“I’m so unmotivated without you!” Chris bemoans, and Yuuri watches on as Phichit and company immediately have their phones out.

“You’re always like that at the beginning of a season,” Victor rebuts, though a bit of his stiffness seeps away as Vreni twines herself around Vasilisa’s neck.

“No, he’s right this time,” says a new voice, and Yuuri peers around Chris’ shoulder to see his coach there, a long-legged shoebill daemon at his side. “He can’t get serious without you! You should come back into the fold.”

Victor looks like he’s about to reply, but then his name is called by several other people—they’re speaking Russian and Yuuri can’t understand what they’re saying, but their vaguely mocking tone is familiar enough. Victor takes a few steps over to chat with them, and Yuuri feels the beginnings of a knot in his stomach.

“The sin of keeping Victor to yourself is grave,” Chris says, almost disinterestedly. Vreni climbs his leg until she’s able to make the jump to his hand, and then continues up his arm. “The whole world is hoping for his return.” The girls Victor’s talking with giggle. “Well then, I’d best be going! I’ll see you out on the ice, Yuuri,” Chris finishes, and walks away with a wave, his daemon draped like a scarf around his neck.

Kaida paws his leg and Yuuri bends down to pick her up, observing Victor interacting with his… admirers? Ex-rinkmates? Yuuri doesn’t even know.

_The whole world is hoping for his return._

Then Yuuri remembers earlier, the hot press of Victor’s tongue against his own, and his resolve only strengthens.

 _I will_ make _them hate me._

* * *

Phichit’s first up, and Yuuri whoops loudly at his friend before heading to the back, to watch the performance on TV.

It’s dazzling, and pulls Yuuri in, almost making him forget that he’ll have to skate in front of a crowd soon, too—Phichit’s taken the music and made it his own, really and truly.

Yuuri smiles at the screen, and Kaida licks his chin. They both remember the first time Phichit had ever shown them the movie—following, of course, a scandalized exchange wherein Phichit had realized they’d never seen it—and then later, when he’d told them his dream was to skate to that song.

“Shall we skate…” Yuuri sings under his breath, smiling. He’s happy for Phichit.

* * *

Yuuri spends the entirety of Guang-hong’s performance psyching himself up into the role of _Eros._  He jogs steadily up and down the corridor, focusing on the way he can hear his heartbeat in his ears.

Christophe’s stretching out nearby as well, which is good, because it reminds Yuuri of his resolution for this short program: be hated, as the man who took Victor from the world.

Vasilisa sits down in his path when it’s his turn to enter the rink, and Yuuri complies, lacing up his skates while Victor watches on.

“The time to seduce me by picturing pork cutlet bowls and women is over,” Victor says when Yuuri returns to him after a warm-up lap.

“You can fight with your own personal charm,” Vasilisa adds, and her purring voice bolsters Yuuri’s confidence. Victor squeezes Yuuri’s hand with his own, and before Yuuri can overthink it, he entwines their fingers and presses his forehead to Victor’s.

“Don’t take your eyes off me, even for a moment,” Yuuri says, and ordinarily, he’d be a little embarrassed by how breathless he sounds. But right now? He has a _point_ to prove, and he gives Victor’s hand one more squeeze before skating off, his body filled with energy that, thankfully, isn’t nervous.

He licks his lips as the music starts, knowing Victor will be watching. Victor’s got a finger pressed to his mouth when Yuuri looks over, and Yuuri smirks at him, before letting himself fall back into the program.

His thoughts, while he skates, are focused entirely on Victor. Nothing else seems to matter, except disproving those voices—because Yuuri took Victor from the world, but more importantly, it was Victor came to Yuuri. _So hate me if you must, but I am still the only one in the whole world who knows Victor’s love._

 _And I will_ prove _it._

* * *

There’s a lot of cheering as Yuuri heads to the Kiss and Cry. He picks up a plush from the ice at random; it’s an onigiri. For once, Kaida’s at the forefront of greeting him, not Victor. Yuuri picks her up and plants a kiss on her forehead.  

“I guess I proved my point today, huh?” he mumbles into her neck.

“Oh, definitely,” she replies. “Also, I know you’re blind, but they’re giving you a standing ovation.”

Yuuri turns to stare out at the little blurry blobs that comprise the crowd, and Kaida wiggles back down onto the floor. Victor’s hug catches Yuuri by surprise, and then he’s dragged to the bench, Victor still with one arm around him.

They do the usual wave and smile routine while they wait, their daemons seated at their sides. Then Victor leans over until his shoulder is pressed to Yuuri’s.

“How’d that feel? Did it feel great?”

Yuuri tries to disguise his blush by taking another sip of water. “I—um, I hope everyone else felt great, watching me.” Which isn’t _strictly_ true, but before Yuuri can elaborate the scores are announced and he’s squinting at the screen, trying to make them out.

Victor gathers him into a hug, just as Yuuri hears ‘personal best’ over the speakers.

“Of course they’d feel great watching a performance like that,” Victor says, his breath tickling Yuuri’s ear. “You’re the best student.”

Luckily, Kaida interrupts before Yuuri can get too distracted, nosing his cheek with a refrain of _personal best, personal best, personal best!_

* * *

They wander over to watch the rest of the programs once Yuuri’s finished another round of interviews. They’ve missed Georgi’s performance entirely, but Leo is in the middle of his skate when Yuuri walks over. Victor wraps his arms around Yuuri's waist, head on his shoulder, and Yuuri's able to comfortably lean against him without either of them falling.

Leo has a gift for interpreting the music, and Yuuri is captivated. He listens happily to Phichit and Guang-hong’s commentary, and by the end, it’s clear that the choreography is suited to maximizing Leo’s strengths. Yuuri wonders if that’s what people see when they watch his short program.

Chris' program, when it comes, is everything one would expect of him—if the quad flip is Victor's signature move, unbridled sexuality is definitely Chris'. For a while, Yuuri's certain that he's going to be beat out of first place, and he prepares himself for the bitter taste—only it never comes.

Chris takes fifth, which means Yuuri’s in first.

Yuuri’s in first, and as much as he detests losing, he really doesn’t know how to handle actually winning. He mumbles something about the power of love (and Victor? He’s not even sure anymore) before running to the nearest bathroom and barricading himself inside.

He just needs a breather, is all.

* * *

Yuuri thinks he probably should have learned by now the effect that calling his family has on his mental state.

He doesn’t sleep a wink.

* * *

When Yuuri shows up to the rink the next morning, he’s greeted by Victor and Vasilisa already there and wearing matching expressions of disapproval.

“You didn’t sleep at all, did you,” Victor says.

“I—I _did_ … a little…” Yuuri hedges, and Victor harrumphs, taking Yuuri’s hand and dragging him back to the hotel room. He bodily strips Yuuri down and pushes him into bed, completing the look with an eye cover and blanket tossed over him.

“Nap until today’s event starts,” Victor says, patting Yuuri’s shoulder. Yuuri’s about to protest when he feels a heavy weight on his chest—Victor’s laid down on top of him, effectively pinning him to the bed.

“Don’t worry,” Vasilisa says from somewhere else. Yuuri gets the sense she’s pinning Kaida in much the same way. “Viten’ka always slept in until last minute, too.”

Yuuri squirms. “Did you even set an alarm?!” he asks, but the only answer he receives is a soft pat and a ‘Shh, nap now’.

Eventually, Victor’s weight and steady breathing lull Yuuri into sleep. He’s woken up an hour or so later by a soft kiss to the cheek. Admittedly, the nap helped, and he feels more rested and less jittery—until, at least, they get to the rink, at which point the fact that he’s in the Grand Prix series and will be skating _last_ (again! Why does this keep happening to him!) hits him like a sucker punch to the stomach.

Quite abruptly, Yuuri no longer really feels all that well at all.

* * *

On-ice warmups go by catastrophically, but it’s fine, it’s fine, _it’s fine—_

* * *

—actually no, it’s not fine, Yuuri’s trembling and his vision’s tunnelling and he can’t focus on a word of what Victor’s saying. He tunes in to the TV only long enough to hear the commentator state that Guang-hong’s nailed a jump before turning the TV off.

Things are _not fine_ , he’s shaking horribly and it would be even worse if Kaida wasn’t there, and _oh God I don’t know if I can do this, I don’t know at all._

* * *

Yuuri only realizes just how poorly he’s been handling things when Vasilisa picks Kaida up by the scruff of her neck and carries her away, at the same time that Victor puts an arm around Yuuri and forcibly steers him into the depths of the parking garage. At least there’s no one else around to witness his shame, now.

Yuuri realizes with a start that Chris must have finished his program, by now. The crackly loudspeaker is announcing Phichit, at the moment. He looks around frantically for a TV, or a monitor, or anything. “Victor, what are the current standings?”

“Okay, Yuuri,” Victor says, making a ‘calm down’ motion with his hands. “First lets just take some deep breaths, and then we’ll continue with our stretches, okay?”

Yuuri hates that Victor has to use that tone of voice with him, but nonetheless complies. He raises the volume of his music, and Victor stands to the side, talking Yuuri through his stretching routine. Vasilisa is giving Kaida a thorough grooming. It helps keep Yuuri grounded.

Unfortunately, it only lasts so long—Victor looks up, distracted, and Yuuri pulls out an earbud, catching the last of Phichit’s closing announcements. Any anxiety that Yuuri was able to put aside in the last four minutes is back in full swing.

“Don’t listen!” Victor shouts suddenly, his hands blocking Yuuri’s ears. Yuuri stands still, on the verge of tears. Victor’s hands block out some of the noise, mostly reducing it to an indistinct mumble. Yuuri isn’t sure if that’s actually any better. Victor doesn’t let up, and Yuuri tries to walk himself through calming thoughts.

 _What’s the best that could happen? Well, I could not completely and utterly fail, disappointing my family and reflecting badly on Victor—no, no, best,_ best _that could happen. I could skate well. I could skate well, or even great. Okay. So then, what’s the wors—_

— _you know what, let’s not even go there._

Yuuri gently removes Victor’s hands from his ears. “Victor? It’s… almost time, isn’t it?” In reality, Yuuri has no idea, but he wants to—to move, or, or _something._ Just… not stand here with Victor’s hands on his ears anymore. Yuuri starts to walk away.

“If you mess up this free skate and miss the podium, I’ll take responsibility and retire as your coach.”

It’s so sudden, so left-field, so straight-out-of-Yuuri’s-nightmares that Yuuri is incapable of anything but staring.

For several seconds.

He trusts Victor, he does, and he knows that Victor probably doesn’t mean this as the cruel threat it is, he knows Victor has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth, but _even so_ —

“Wh—why would you say something like that?” Yuuri asks, only dimly aware of the tears rolling down his cheeks. “Like you’re trying to—to test me?” Yuuri sees, once again, the exact moment that Victor realizes that what he’s said has consequences.

“Ahh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t being serious—”

“I’m used to being blamed for my own failures,” Yuuri says, and then the dam breaks open. “But this time, my mistakes reflect on you, too! And that’s why I’m anxious! I’ve been wondering if you secretly wanted to _quit!”_

“Of course I don’t—”

“ _I_ _know!_ ” Yuuri shouts, the sound hurting as it’s ripped from his throat. Yuuri sniffles.

“I’m not good with people crying in front of me,” Victor says, running a hand through his hair. _No shit_ , Kaida says to Yuuri, gently approaching and nuzzling his leg. “I don’t know what I should do. Should I just kiss you or something?”

The thought of Victor—his Victor—offering him a kiss, even now that Yuuri’s crying and ugly and so damned weak, raises an emotion that Yuuri doesn’t want to confront right now. He replaces it instead with anger, that of all things, Victor thinks a _kiss_ would be capable of solving a problem Yuuri’s had since he was a _child_ —

“No!” he shouts, and that brings on a whole new wave of tears. “Just have more faith than I do that I’ll _win!_ You don’t have to say anything! Just _stay by my side!”_

Yuuri knows the reference doesn’t pass Victor by, just as surely as he knows he doesn’t need to add ‘and never leave’ for it to be heard.

Yuuri’s enveloped by Victor’s arms before he even knows what’s happening.

“Of course, Yuuri, of course.”

And then he kisses Yuuri anyway, even though Yuuri’s crying and ugly and so damned weak.

* * *

Yuuri’s pulled himself together by the time they re-emerge upstairs. Kaida’s sticking close to Yuuri’s feet, while Vasilisa trails in back. Somehow, they manage to avoid being intercepted by reporters, and they make it to the rink just as Georgi’s finishing.

Yuuri feels a bit numb as he laces up, and gives Kaida a kiss before stepping out onto the ice. Even after two quick laps, his nose is still stuffy, and he accepts the tissue from Victor.

Victor, at the moment, looks as shaken and unsure as Yuuri had felt earlier. On impulse, Yuuri drops his tissue. Victor dives down to catch it, and Yuuri puts a finger at the whorl where his hair starts. Then he pats Victor’s head. He doesn’t speak, because he doesn’t think he’s up to that quite yet, but he hopes his message has gotten across.

Yuuri skates out to the middle as the announcer calls his name. He tries to clear his mind as the music starts, but he finds himself unable to. He also finds that it’s not even necessary—crying has broken down some of the tension in him, leaving him feeling oddly unhindered.

He’s never cried before a skate before; maybe he should try it more often.

He focuses on the jumps. _Quad toe, double toe combination, now…_ he hands it, and a small drip of satisfaction fills his chest. _Well, that went better than expected._

Yuuri pulls into the setup for his next jump. _Besides_ , he consoles himself. _Victor’s too inexperienced as a coach, is all. It’s not like my mental weakness just started now—that’s always been there. He should have at least been prepared to deal with that…_

 _Stupid Victor,_ Yuuri thinks as he pushes off from the ice.

 _Oh, I landed it_ , he realizes, music temporarily drowned out by the cheers of the crowd. He moves into a spin next, blurring the audience even more. He lands a triple loop just as the music reaches its first climax.

Yuuri spreads his arms as the violin drops out, and lets his eyes close for a second. It’s almost like flying, like—like _freedom_. To be whomever; to be, right now, _himself_.

_We belong to the ice._

Then a lunge, a spread eagle, an Ina Bauer—the music starts to pick up as Yuuri jumps into a triple axel. It’s one of his favorite jumps, but he still touches down, a brush of cold against his fingertips. _I messed up controlling the speed, but… it still went pretty well, despite not doing it in warmup. Next, a triple flip…_

Yuuri lands it this time. But the flip has him thinking—what if he switched out his quad toe for a quad flip, at the end? What would Victor think?

He over-rotates on his last jump of the combo, but despite that he’s still not as tired as he should have been, considering he’d only managed one or two hours of sleep. His next jump combination goes off without a hitch—and then he’s finally made it to the step sequence.

This is his favorite part of the program, in part because, well—steps sequences have always been something that he has no issues performing, regardless of anxiety levels. The more he skates, though, the better he wants to become, and the more energy that courses through him.

His resolution grows. _I can surpass even Victor’s wildest imagination, I can—_

He launches into the quad flip.

He falls, but it doesn’t matter because the crowd is roaring and Yuuri knows Victor’s watching and—and it was for Victor, anyway, and Victor will understand what it means. Even if Yuuri didn’t make it, he tried it and Victor saw it and—

—and he finishes with a combination spin and—

Yuuri feels a shock go through him, a tingle, a burn—he's panting hard and holding the final pose of his program, part of his brain speaking with Minako's cadence telling him to hold his fingers just so, and he's on fire, his heart is on fire, his soul—

_—his soul._

Kaida is touching Victor or Victor is touching Kaida, he's not sure which, but he knows it with a bone-deep certainty—

—Yuuri turns, seeking out Victor and Kaida, sees Victor running towards the only opening in the rink—

—Yuuri skates, ecstatic, soul still singing—

"Victor!" Yuuri says, because Kaida made contact with Victor and Yuuri just skated what might have been the best of his life and he doesn’t—how does he—what’s he supposed to say when he’s too happy to even think—  

And then time itself seems to slow as Victor launches himself forward and kisses Yuuri, his lips still soft even as they fall back onto the ice, Yuuri's head cradled in Victor's hand and the whole world's cameras directed at them.

“This was the only thing I could think of that I could do, to surprise you more than you surprised me,” Victor says. Then he leans down and kisses Yuuri again.

Yuuri giggles, and can't even bring himself to care anymore.

* * *

Phichit’s standing in gold, a few centimeters above him, Naak sitting proudly between his feet, but for once, Yuuri doesn’t mind. The itch that normally comes with not winning—it just isn’t there. Kaida nudges him, and he smiles at her, then glances at Phichit. Phichit meets his gaze, his wide smile belying the tears Yuuri can see in the corner of his eyes.

A swell of pride rises up in Yuuri, because that, there, is his best friend and _damn_ if Phichit doesn’t deserve that medal. Yuuri opens his arms.

Phichit dives into them.

Later, Yuuri finds out that the photo of them hugging on the podium, their daemons doing the same, went viral; right alongside the photo of him and Victor, kissing on the ice.

No, Yuuri doesn’t mind in the least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> worst part of this chapter: i didn't get to write as much phichit as i wanted to because yuuri spends so much time in the fucking parking garage. true cruelty! i also really hope i got the diminutives of vasilisa right? 
> 
> also, if you don't follow me on tumblr you might not know this, but i have [so many feelings about chris](http://piyo-13.tumblr.com/post/155707551301/christophe-giacometti) and the fact that he gives three kisses as a greeting is part of it. 
> 
> as always, thank you so much for all your kudos and comments! the latter especially keep me from giving up when the writing gets tough <3
> 
> The daemons:  
> Yuuri Katsuki: Kaida, arctic fox  
> Victor Nikiforov: Vasilisa, snow leopard  
> Phichit Chulanont: Naak, sunda pangolin  
> Yuuko Nishigori: Airi, river otter  
> Takeshi Nishigori: Saya, akita inu  
> Toshiya Katsuki: Mimori, shiba inu  
> Hiroko Katsuki: Iteru, rabbit  
> Mari Katsuki: Yoshiro, crow  
> Minako Okukawa: Reiji, red-crowned crane  
> Yuri Plisetsky: Yekaterina, unsettled  
> Minami Kenjirou: no name given, ermine  
> Celestino Cialdini: Cecilia, rockhopper penguin  
> Yakov Feltsman: no name given, wolverine  
> Leo de la Iglesia: no name given, bobcat  
> Guang-hong Ji: no name given, golden pheasant  
> Christophe Giacometti: Vreni, rainbow boa


	5. v.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *throws overpriced textbooks and unfinished homework everywhere* save me from university workloads
> 
> also translations are also in hovertext for those of you on desktop, at the bottom for those of you unable to access hovertext

Yuuri and Kaida slip away after the medal ceremony. They sneak upstairs to their room, the silver heavy and solid around Yuuri’s neck, and when they get inside, Yuuri closes the door behind them and goes to sit on the edge of his bed.

“So,” he says, tone nonchalant. “You did that.”

“I did that,” Kaida replies, an edge of pride and smugness in her voice.

“Ahhh!” Yuuri says, throwing his arms up and falling backward onto the bed.

Kaida laughs, then, loudly and happily; the noise shakes her whole body. Yuuri grins at the ceiling.

“Why now?”

Kaida hums a little bit. “Because he’s good,” she states.

Yuuri can’t really disagree with that. He turns his head to look at Kaida, where she’s laying on her side next to him, and she meets his eyes.

“What did it feel like for you?”

She blinks. “Like it did for you, I think. Like…” She closes her eyes, and suddenly Yuuri feels the press of her emotions—and then a burning, but not like fire; a burning like the first truly warm day after winter, when the sun beats down and the warmth is overwhelming and yet you can’t just move away because it is _so good_ —first on her nose when she’d nudged Victor to make her intent clear, then on her forehead and back of her neck and her back and _oh_ —

The image that accompanied the emotions is a memory of Victor, his face growing awestruck and reverent as he realized what Kaida was offering. What Kaida and Yuuri were offering; what they wanted.

Yuuri reaches over and pulls Kaida to him. “I’m glad,” he says.

“Me, too.”

There’s a brusque knock on the door, and then it opens to reveal Victor, Vasilisa on his heels. Yuuri stands up.

“Victor—” he starts, but he barely has time to finish the name before Victor’s pulling Yuuri to him, pressing their mouths together for a kiss. After a moment’s hesitation, Yuuri wraps his arms around Victor’s neck, and Victor relaxes into Yuuri.

Yuuri pulls away for a second, causing Victor to frown, and runs his hands over Victor’s shoulders. He’s still wearing his coat.

He shouldn’t be.

“Yuuri,” Victor says as Yuuri unbuttons the coat and the vest that’s under that, and slides his hands along Victor’s chest, feeling the warmth of his skin through the thin dress shirt.

“Yes?” Yuuri asks, unbuttoning some more and leaning in to run his lips along Victor’s collarbone. Kaida and Vasilisa are somewhere in the room, and Yuuri gets the distinct impression that they’re curled as close to each other as is physically possible.

“Oh, Yuuri,” Victor says again, breathily, and then he pulls away and brings Yuuri’s chin up, so their lips can meet once more.

Victor’s mouth is hot against his own, and Victor’s hands are running up and down his flanks, and Yuuri is alternately burning hot and far too cold. Victor pushes a little, and Yuuri takes a small step back, then another, and another, until the backs of Yuuri’s legs hit the bed and he understands what Victor wants.

He falls back onto the bed, and Victor follows him down.

* * *

Yuuri smoothes down the cerulean blue of his costume as he steps off the ice after Phichit, leaving Chris to finish one more quick lap before making his way to center ice.

Kaida seems more white than usual as the lights dim, and she shuffles next to Yuuri, sitting between him and Victor as they settle down to watch Chris’ exhibition skate. Vasilisa sits on Victor’s other side, but Yuuri doesn’t begrudge her—it took her until yesterday to _speak_ to him; he doesn’t expect her to touch him any time soon.

Then the first notes of the music start, and Yuuri focuses on Chris. His exhibition skate is nothing like his normal programs; there’s no explicit sexiness to it. The only allure present is that of Chris himself, an attractive athlete, nothing more. Yuuri doesn’t recognize the song, but it’s a sad one, and the more Chris skates, the more Yuuri’s convinced it’s a program about longing.

He wonders what for.

Vasilisa gets up and walks towards the rink a bit before the skate comes to an end. Then Victor reaches over and grabs Yuuri’s hand, before leaning in and whispering in his ear.

“Let’s go down. You’re up next, after all.”

They walk down, hand in hand, and by the time they’ve reached the sidelines proper, Chris is done. Vasilisa is in the daemon’s sector, on her back with Vreni looped around her.

“Are you ready?” Victor asks. He’s smiling a bit, as if he already knows the answer.

Nonetheless, Yuuri gives it to him. “This is the easiest one to skate,” he says, and he means it.

Not the easiest in technical terms,maybe, but Yuuri has nothing but good associations with _Stammi Vicino_ , and as the first notes ring out over the ice, he feels himself calm.

The only thing that’s missing right now is Victor, out here on the ice with him, but no sooner has he thought that than does Kaida touch Victor and Victor stroke her in return, and Yuuri smiles.

_Stammi vicino, indeed._

* * *

The banquet, that night, is a lot better than other banquets Yuuri remembers attending. The atmosphere’s a lot more relaxed than in previous years

“Is there something I’m missing here?” Yuuri asks Kaida, once they get a rare, interaction-free moment. Kaida frowns, and she’s just about to answer when a voice calls out Yuuri’s name. It sounds like a sponsor, or at least not a skater Yuuri knows, and he steels himself mentally before turning towards the person in question.

_We’ll have to talk about this later_ , Kaida thinks at him.

_Mmhm,_ Yuuri returns. _Later._

Of course, later ends with him and Victor tumbling into bed together, and then promptly passing out.

When Yuuri wakes up the next morning, he feels like he’s forgotten something he was supposed to do, but by that point they’re already running almost late to the airport—and if it’s not important enough for him to have written down on his make-sure-you-don’t-leave-Beijing-without-this list, then it’s not worth dwelling over.

* * *

There’s two weeks until the Rostelecom Cup.

Victor’s voice is already audible from the hallway, and for a moment Yuuri blearily wonders who he’s talking to.

Yuuri shuffles into the kitchen, Kaida held loosely in his arms. Victor’s on the phone, but when he sees Yuuri he smiles broadly and waves at a plate of food on the table. Vasilisa jumps up and nudges the plate towards Yuuri with a paw.

“Eat, Yuuri,” she says. “Breakfast is—”

“—the most important meal of the day, I know,” Yuuri says without feeling. He doesn’t really feel awake yet. He starts shovelling food, eating mostly through force of habit, listening idly as Victor continues speaking in a language Yuuri doesn’t understand.

Yuuri gulps down some coffee while Victor hums and nods his way through the last of the conversation. When he hangs up, it’s with a grin. Yuuri is, above all, too tired to deal with the implications of that grin.

“No,” he says before Victor can even open his mouth. Victor pouts. From across the table, Vasilisa gives Yuuri her best pitiful gaze. He ignores the both of them and focuses on his food.

“But Yuuri!”

“No, Victor.”

“But it’s about pair skating,” Victor wheedles.

Yuuri pauses and looks up at him.

"With meee." Victor’s got a smirk on that says he knows exactly how he’s manipulating Yuuri. Unfortunately, it’s working.

“...go on.”

* * *

The Trophée de France is tense, Yuuri on the edge of his bed for much of it, Kaida taking out her stress by running circles around the room and jumping on everything, though quietly. Time zones mean everyone else has recorded the event to watch it later; only Yuuri and Kaida are awake, having retreated back to Yuuri’s own room for the night, and are watching the men’s free skate on Yuuri’s laptop, via a shitty Internet stream that keeps glitching.

By the end, only two skaters are confirmed to be going to the Final: Otabek Altin, and Chris. While Vreni loops prettily around Christophe’s neck, showing off her iridescence right next to his newly-won gold, Yuuri spares a thought for Otabek. It seems like no one really knows much about him; he’s a dark horse from a country with a small skating federation, though his daemon—a large, grizzled black wolf—is intimidating.

Yuuri doesn’t really want to face him, actually.

Sure, he still wants to _win,_ but…

“There’s time for self-doubt later,” Kaida mumbles at him. She reaches out with a paw and closes his laptop. “For now, there’s still half a week left before we fly out, and you’ll practice better if you’re in a good state of mind.”

Yuuri takes a few deep breaths, then puts his laptop away and shuts the lights.

“You’re right,” he says.

“I usually am,” she answers, and Yuuri gives her a small smile. They sneak back into Victor’s room, and though Victor doesn’t wake completely, Vasilisa does eye them.

“Sorry,” Yuuri whispers, and Vasilisa flicks an ear with a huff, merely pulling Kaida closer. Yuuri takes that as a sign of being forgiven. He crawls under the blankets and scooches as close to Victor as he can without it being uncomfortable, wrapping an arm around Victor’s waist and pressing a soft kiss to the nape of Victor’s neck.

He falls asleep wreathed by Victor’s comforting smell, Kaida’s words chasing themselves in circles through his mind.

* * *

_"Yuuriiiiii,”_ Phichit says, and Yuuri pokes the screen a little bit as the pixels freeze up. _“I’m dying over here!”_ As if to accentuate his point, Phichit bodily throws himself onto his bed.

“Are you now,” Yuuri replies, raising an eyebrow, though he’s not sure the motion even registers.

_“I am_ ,” Phichit replies, nodding along very earnestly.

_“What he means is that_ I _am dying,"_ Naak interjects, _“Because I’ve had to listen to this for a week already. Kaida, would you be up for sharing Yuuri right about now?”_

_“Even my own daemon leaves me! Woe is me!”_

Yuuri chuckles a bit. “Okay, so you’re dead and your daemon’s leaving you for me, you never actually told me why…?”

_“Oh,_ ” Phichit says, rolling back onto his stomach and partially crushing Naak in the process. _“I won’t know if I’ve qualified for the final until_ you _all skate. This weekend! Five entire days from now! Yuuri, how is a boy supposed to survive!?”_

“I’m sure you’ll manage…”

_“I mean, yeah, probably. But_ still _, like who even made these rules? Why do some of us gotta suffer like this? They’ve singled me out, I’m sure of it.”_ Kaida and Naak make twin sounds of bemusement.

“You’re right, Phichit,” Yuuri responds solemnly. “The ISU, founded in 1892, specifically wrote rules over a hundred years ago in order to target you, personally.”

Phichit wrinkled his nose. _“The rules get updated! Also, wow, you know when it was founded, nerd much?”_

“Ha!” Yuuri retorts, grinning. “Refresh my memory, who here is skating to the soundtrack of a movie he’s seen too many times? ‘Cause it isn’t me!”

Phichit and Naak both gasp dramatically. _“Yuuri! What kind of blasphemy are you talking here, there is_ no such thing _as ‘too many times’ when it comes to_ The King and the Skater. _First betrayed by my daemon, and now by my best friend…! There truly is no justice in the world!”_

By the end of his tirade, all four of them are laughing.

They don’t end the Skype call until four hours later.

* * *

Victor and Yuuri skate together often, now. Usually at least once a practice. It’s fun and relaxing, even despite the small lifts Victor’s decided upon adding—after phoning a friend of his, he’d learned what the easiest ones were and was determined to try them about.

They’re just wrapping up practice now, skating off the ice, and Yuuri winces a little as a particularly nasty sore patch makes itself known, now that he’s no longer under the influence of the thrill of skating. He can feel Kaida’s concern, but it is what it is.

He sits down heavily in the empty locker rooms, forever grateful that Ice Castle Hasetsu is willing to work with him to get him the private ice time he needs. He drinks some water as he watches Victor take off his skates, and once the bottle’s empty, he leans down to take care of his own.

“Wait, Yuuri,” Victor says, getting down on his knees. “Let me?”

Yuuri stares at him for a few seconds, _feeling_ the brush spread across his cheeks, but nods. He sits back upright as Victor starts to gently unlace his skates. Then he pulls them off, and Yuuri’s socks follow, Victor being careful and slow every time Yuuri’s breath hitches due to the pain. Victor shifts into a cross-legged position, Yuuri’s feet in his lap, and he leans over to pick up some antiseptic cream.

“May I?” he asks, and Yuuri nods again, so Victor tends to his wounds. Then he presses a kiss to each foot, and smiles up at Yuuri. “Kisses make everything better! Where’s your new socks?” Mutely, Yuuri hands over his fresh pair, and Victor puts them on Yuuri’s feet, before grabbing his sneakers and gently putting those on, too.

“Is this too tight?” Victor asks, tugging on the laces experimentally.

“No, it’s fine,” Yuuri replies. With a satisfied nod, Victor finishes off the knot and gives Yuuri’s foot a pat.

“There!” he says. Yuuri stares at him, in awe. He’s never felt so—

“Victor?”

“Yes?”

“Can I kiss you?”

This time it’s Victor who blushes.

* * *

The flight to Russia is long, as usual, but Yuuri manages to sleep through the right part of it, so when they finally arrive at Sheremetyevo, he’s not even particularly jet lagged. They check in to the hotel, and then Victor and Vasilisa disappear, so Yuuri and Kaida decide to go investigate the hotel, which they’ve never been in before.

They wander around, hesitantly ask a few people for water bottles, first in halting Russian and then in English, and finally get some from somewhere that looks like it could be a front desk, but definitely isn’t where they came in. They see neither hide nor hair of Vasilisa or Victor.

As they return to the elevators and wait for the doors to open, someone comes up next to them. Yuuri glances over, and then recognizes the person, and the yellow-brown marten at his feet.

“Seung-gil, hi!”

Seung-gil barely gives Yuuri a look. He looks like he’s about to say something, but then the elevator doors ding, opening to a scene of chaos. Yuuri recognizes all the occupants—the two dog daemons, nearly identical except for their posture, belong to the Crispino twins, and the large eagle daemon spreading her wings against the back wall must be Emil Nekola from the Czech Republic’s.

For a moment, Yuuri’s worried he’s going to get dragged into conversation, but then Seung-gil strides forward while ignoring everyone else, and while they’re all distracted, Yuuri and Kaida slip away into the _other_ elevator.

“Well,they’re certainly an… interesting lot,” Yuuri says to Kaida. She’s about to reply, when a foot jams the elevator door open.

“Where are you sneaking off to?” says a familiar voice.

Yuri Plisetsky, despite being shorter, somehow manages to seem like he’s looking down his nose at Yuuri. His daemon, as soon as she sees Yuuri and Kaida, drops off his shoulder, where she was perched as a falcon of some sort, and morphs into the usual gangly tiger, puffing out her chest fur at Kaida. Kaida is unimpressed.

“Nice to see you again after so long,” Yuuri says with a smile. Yurio glares daggers at him. There’s a moment of awkward silence before Yuuri continues, “And, um, good luck to both of us in the Cup.”

“Huh?” Yurio scowls. “You’ll suffer a miserable defeat here in Moscow.” He says it matter-of-factly enough that Yuuri’s stomach twists a little just in hearing that. “I’m going to have Victor stay in Russia.”

Kaida flattens her ears. Really, it’s almost as if Yurio knows exactly what to say to send Yuuri off the deep end. Because, even if Yuuri had been trying to forget about it, he’s done the calculations—and the fact remains, if he doesn’t place above fourth?

He’s not going to the Final.

And what Victor will do if that happens…

Kaida nudges his leg comfortingly, and Yuuri does his best to shake the thoughts away.

* * *

Yuuri and Kaida spend the night cuddled up to an oddly quiet Victor. Yuuri feels more at peace than he ever has before a skate. Vasilisa, however, is restless, pacing back and forth between the bed and the window.

“Are you alright?” Kaida asks, and it’s unclear whom she’s referring to.

“We’re fine,” Victor says after a beat. “There’s just…”

“A few things to think about,” Vasilisa finishes. She lays down, but even to Yuuri it seems forced, and her tail is lashing. He looks at Victor questioningly.

“We… were confronted about a few things, earlier. Don’t worry, though.”

Yuuri looks up at him. “You know you can talk to us, right? About whatever?” Victor smiles, and pulls Yuuri closer.

“I know. _We_ know. I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it yet, though,” he says, hushed, and presses a kiss to Yuuri’s forehead. Yuuri nods a little. He knows the feeling.

“Okay. As long as you know we’re here for you.”

“You have no idea how much it means to us,” Victor replies, punctuating his statement with more kisses. “But now, as your coach, I say you need to get some sleep.”

“Well since my _coach_ insists…” Yuuri pretends to grumble, but the fact that he’s cuddling closer to Victor belies his words, and he knows it.

* * *

Yuuri wakes up refreshed the next day, and ready to skate. He doesn’t really have any friends here—unless he counts Yurio, and Yurio had done his best to glare Yuuri into submission earlier, so he doesn’t count—so Yuuri ends up speaking mostly only when spoken to, and focusing on his warmups.

On ice doesn’t go badly, for once, and they head to the back room. The other group two skaters are already there—Yurio’s not too far, Yekaterina stretching like a serval next to him, and JJ and Reine are also present, going through their own warm-up routine.

“Do you want to go watch, or go somewhere else…?” Victor asks, making a half-hearted gesture towards the door. Yuuri considers for a moment.

“I think—here’s fine,” he says. “If that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay,” Victor says. “Do you want to just keep warming up, then?”

Yuuri nods, and Victor hands him his earbuds.

“Thanks,” he says with a smile. Victor stays nearby, idly playing on his phone while Yuuri stretches. He hears some of Seung-gil’s music through his headphones, so he raises the volume, until it drowns out even the cheering.

A few minutes later, though, a movement catches Yuuri’s eye, and he looks up to see two pairs of blue eyes, one human and one husky, staring at him. He pulls an earbud out. “Ah, sorry, I didn’t hear that, what did you say?” he asks JJ.

“Victor did the same jump at last year’s exhibition,” JJ says, sauntering over and past Yuuri, to loom over Victor. “I want to see it again!”

“I don’t recall,” Victor replies, and Yuuri smiles a little to recognize Victor’s talking-to-the-press voice.

“Aw,” JJ says, but Reine seems to pick up on a bit of Vasilisa’s murderous intent, because she pushes on JJ’s legs until he backs up and returns to stretching. Cheers ring out again, signalling that Emil’s finished, and Yuuri hastily puts his earphone back in. He’s first up in group two, so he’s probably got a minute of stretching left, and he intends to use it.

Soon enough, though, Victor taps him on the shoulder. Yuuri nods, taking out his headphones and stashing them in his pocket. They walk out near the arena while Michele’s still skating, and Kaida and Vasilisa go to watch him finish. Yuuri makes to don his skates.

“Yuuri, wait,” Victor says, and places his hand over Yuuri’s where he’s holding the skates. “Let me?”

Yuuri bites his lip. He’s not sure if he can deal with that right now… but then again, he’s skating to _Eros._ He shrugs. “Sure.”

By the time Victor’s done tightening the laces on his skates and Michele’s scores are being read, Yuuri is _ready_. He gives Kaida a kiss for good luck, and then steps onto the ice, taking a quick lap before returning to Victor.

He knows the exact moment the overhead screen changes from Michele in the kiss and cry to where he and Victor are standing, because the entire stadium starts chanting Victor’s name. But of course—this is Victor’s home turf, of course the crowd would be excited to see him here. Yuuri has a sudden flashback to Beijing, and the accusations of pulling Victor away—no doubt that sentiment is even stronger here.

Victor, for his part, smiles happily and waves out at the crowd.

Yuuri purses his lips. No, that won’t do. If he’s to convince the entire world that Victor’s his, and his alone, then Victor should also _concentrate_ on him, and him alone.

Yuuri reaches out and grabs Victor’s tie, pulling him down. “The performance has already begun, Victor,” Yuuri says.

“You’re right,” Victor replies, and Yuuri feels him settle under the weight of the tie.

“Don’t worry, I’ll show my love to the whole of Russia,” Yuuri says, even as the crowd continues to clap for Victor. Victor’s eyes sparkle.

“I look forward to it,” he mumbles, and his eyes are fixed on Yuuri as Yuuri skates backwards and away. He turns to skate forwards as his name is called and the cheers shift from Victor’s name to a general applause for Yuuri himself.

_Well, shit_ , Yuuri thinks. _That was embarrassing…_

_No_ , Kaida butts in. _You can’t let the crowd intimidate you. You have to intimidate the crowd. Show them Victor and Vasilisa are ours_. She brushes up against Victor as she thinks so, the characteristic warmth flooding into Yuuri.

Then comes the hush that precludes the music, and as the first bars of _Eros_ ring out, Yuuri smirks and blows a kiss towards Victor. Then the music kicks in in earnest, and Yuuri’s off.

It’s possible that no one here wants him to win; after all, if he loses, this is the last time he’ll skate with Victor as his coach. No, the last time he’ll skate competitively, period.

And Yuuri finds that he really, _really_ doesn’t want that to be the case.

* * *

He’s panting hard as he takes his bows, but the crowd’s still cheering, and somehow he thinks he must’ve gotten his point across. He picks up a few of the closest plushies from the ice, and goes to skate off, towards Victor and Kaida and Vasilisa—

—only, instead of meeting any one of those three at the entrance, he meets Yurio. Who is staring him down with a death glare that’s neither quite ‘death’ nor ‘glare’, but of such a focused precision that it can’t really be described as much else.

“Get out of my way, pig,” Yurio says, before primly marching towards the ice. Yuuri’s shellshocked, even once Kaida reaches him and jumps to lick his hand. Victor moves up behind them both, and a quick glance confirms that he’s seeing Yurio the same way Yuuri is.

“This—this is Yurio’s real agape!”

Then he and Victor exchange a glance, and break into smiles. “Awesome!”

“Not to interrupt your elder-youth bonding or whatever, but you need to get to the kiss and cry,” Kaida says after a few seconds in which Victor and Yuuri simply stare at Yurio’s back.

“Oh, right,” Victor says. He takes the plushies while Yuuri puts on his skate guards, and then Yuuri takes on of them back and holds Kaida in the other arm. Victor slings his free arm over Yuuri’s shoulder, and together they walk to the kiss and cry.

The scores aren’t long in coming, but once they do Kaida’s all up in Yuuri’s face, giving him foxy kisses in celebration of a new personal best, and then the plushies are forgotten as Victor kneels down and kisses Yuuri’s skate in front of the whole world.

Yuuri blushes, but he also can’t stop smiling.

Then he notices Yurio looking in their direction. “Oh! Yurio, давай!” he shouts, probably butchering the Russian, but whatever. Then Victor jumps up, almost knocking Yuuri to the ground.

“Yurio, ganba!” Victor shouts, and Yuuri laughs, because of course Victor wouldn’t speak in Russian to another Russian.

Yurio, for his parts, seems incandescent, and as his name is called, he skates off with a snarl. Yekaterina slips into the daemon sector with a similar snarl at Vasilisa and Kaida, though as Yekaterina actually has the fangs to back it up, hers is more intimidating.

* * *

Yuuri finds himself in first, even after Yurio skates. It’s still a bit… _odd_ , but he’s not as freaked out this time. Mostly, he’s proud.

Yuuri can’t say for sure what’s going through Victor’s head, but when Yuuri glances back at him, when the scores are announced, he thinks that that Victor might feel just as proud.

The thought warms Yuuri to the core.

* * *

They watch JJ’s skate from the TVs in the back, and even before he’s done, Yuuri knows he’s ceded the first place. JJ’s base score is just—incredible, really.

Yuuri’s phone vibrates, and he checks the caller ID. It’s Mari.

_You should pick up_ , Kaida thinks. _Mari wouldn’t interrupt unless it was really important._

Heeding her advice, Yuuri excuses himself to the lobby, and takes the call. After a few seconds, Victor trails him.

“Hello?” he asks, in Japanese.

_“Ah, Yuuri, I’m sorry to bother you during an event, but Makkachin stole some buns, and they got stuck in his throat._ ”

Yuuri feels the pit fall out of his stomach. He flashes back to a similar call, almost exactly a year ago, and his throat constricts.

_“He’s at the vet now, but… I just don’t know for sure if he’ll make it,”_ Mari says. She seems tired. _“I’m sorry… what do you want us to do?”_

This is a decision Yuuri doesn’t even need to take time for. “I’ll send Victor back immediately. Please… stay with Makkachin.” Then he hangs up, and turns to Victor, switching back to English. “Victor! You have to go back to Japan! I’ll deal with the free skate alone tomorrow, but Makkachin’s in danger.”

“W-what?”

“It was Mari, on the phone. She said Makkachin ate some buns, and they got stuck in his throat, and now he’s at the vet and they’re not sure if he’ll make it. You have to go back!”

“...but I can’t,” Victor says. “You—”

“No!” Yuuri interrupts. “You have to go back! Look I—I wasn’t there when—when Vicchan—look! I don’t want you to go through the same thing I went through. And I’ll be fine.”

Victor wears a pained expression.

“If I go, then… Vasilisa can stay here with you.”

It takes Yuuri a second for the full impact of that statement to hit him, but when it does, he shakes his head firmly.

“No, Victor.” Victor opens his mouth to retort, but Yuuri shushes him with a finger to the lips. “No, Victor, you’ll need her in case—you’ll just need her. Her support. Vasilisa, you have to go with him.”

Vasilisa looks at Yuuri for a moment, then turns to Victor. “I’m coming with you,” she says low. Victor looks like he’s about to protest, but he drops the subject with a shake of his head.

“Alright, well, if you won’t let her stay, then—oh! Hold on!” Victor darts around Yuuri and runs down the hall. Yuuri can’t hear what Victor’s saying, but he’s talking to Yakov, and Yuuri can guess.

Sure enough, Victor jogs back a few seconds later. “Yakov’s agreed to be your coach for the day.” There’s several muffled Russian exclamations in the background, both from Yakov himself as well as Yurio. “You can ask him if you have any questions, and if you need a hug just go for it, he’s actually quite cuddly underneath everything.”

Then Victor whips out his phone, clicking a few times, before nodding to himself and tucking the phone away.

He places his hands on Yuuri’s shoulders. He looks into Yuuri’s eyes, almost searching. Yuuri blinks back at him.

“Yuuri,” Victor says, and then pulls Yuuri into a tight hug, his nose buried in the crook where Yuuri’s neck meets his shoulder. Yuuri doesn’t hesitate in returning the hug. “There’s a flight leaving in an hour and a half, I have to go now if I want to make it.”

“Yes, of course, you—you should go,” Yuuri says. He _will not_ cry in front of Victor.

“Yeah,” Victor replies, but only tightens his grip.

Yuuri can feel Kaida weaving in and out between their legs, affecting them both with her warmth. Then Yuuri gasps. Because it’s not just Kaida anymore; Vasilisa is rubbing her head against Yuuri’s calf, her long, silk-soft tail flicking up to brush against his hand, and Yuuri—

Well, now he’s _definitely_ crying.

And Victor, sweet Victor, notices, and wipes Yuuri’s tears away with a gentle thumb even as Vasilisa presses herself further against them both and Kaida fills whatever gaps Vasilisa can’t reach, and then Yuuri tilts his head up and Victor responds to his silent plea, and they’re kissing.

A few people are watching, now, but Yuuri doesn’t care. When they break apart, they don’t move far, simply resting for a moment, forehead to forehead. Victor mumbles something in Russian that Yuuri doesn’t catch, but he thinks he still understands. The warm weight of Vasilisa against him is indication enough.

“You need to go,” Yuuri chokes out.

“I’ll text you when I land,” Victor says, and then he and Vasilisa are jogging out front and hailing a taxi. Victor turns and blows one last kiss to Yuuri before climbing in.

Watching someone go has never felt so painful.

* * *

The bed that night is vast, and cold, and Yuuri can’t even call Victor, because he’s still on the plane.

Yuuri twiddles with his phone a bit. It’s about midnight in Bangkok.

“Send him a message anyways, you never know,” Kaida says, nuzzling Yuuri’s arm, so Yuuri types out a quick _u there?_ to Phichit and waits. The reply isn’t long in coming.

_ >yeah, i’m here. whats up? _

_-Can I call you?_

The phone’s ringing almost immediately. Yuuri tries not to cry.

“Hey, Phichit.”

_“Yuuri? What’s wrong? I heard—well._ ”

Yuuri nods. “Yeah. Victor had to leave, there was a—a thing with Makkachin, he couldn’t stay… and now I’m—” Yuuri searches for the right word, but comes up short. Empty, maybe? Awful?

_“Do you need me to distract you?”_ Phichit asks. Yuuri nods.

“Please,” he manages to say.

_“Okay. Well, so, yesterday, I was down in the city center, like you do, and this guy on a bike came through with all these flowers, practically knocked me over, only then—”_

* * *

_ >hey so i think u fell asleep at some point?? _  
>no hard feelings tho, u just sorta stopped answering.  
>i hope this means it helped calm u down enuf 2 sleep?  
>msg me when u wake up  
>i hope u feel better???  
>and if u msg victor tell him i hope his dogs ok 2 

 

_ >I’ve arrived in Osaka _  
_ >In Hasetsu now, Mari’s taking me to the vet _  
_ >He’s stabilized while I was flying, vet says he should be fine in a few hours _ _  
_ >がんば

* * *

Practice is excruciating, interviews are excruciating, everything is anxiety, and Yuuri feels like he’s missing something vitally important to his general functioning.

Which, like, he _is_ , but _still._

“This is pathetic,” he tells Kaida, once they’re both safely locked into a bathroom stall.

“I mean, objectively, yeah,” she replies. “But we’ve also spent the last… seven and a half months with them _every single day_ , so…” she sighs. “I miss Vasilisa.”

“...yeah.”

* * *

Sara corners him as he’s stretching, right before group two is set to go out.

“Good luck out there, Yuuri,” she says. Her long-limbed dog daemon places a paw on Kaida’s head briefly.

“Um, t-thank you?” Yuuri stammers, unsure what, exactly, Sara wants. It doesn’t really seem like she’s talking to Yuuri for the sake of talking to Yuuri. She nods once, and then leaves. Yuuri watches her go for a second, then turns to Kaida.

“Well I have no idea what just happened,” Kaida says.

“Right,” Yuuri says. “At least that makes two of us…”

Even more unsettled than before, Yuuri returns to his stretching routine.

* * *

Yuuri’s lost in his head for most of the rest of his competitor’s routines, but he does notice Seung-gil crying after he leaves the kiss and cry, his daemon draped over his shoulder and nuzzling his cheek gently. Yuuri almost wants to talk to him, because he knows the feeling—but then Seung-gil’s passed him by, and chasing him down would be awkward.

Yuuri doesn’t need awkward, he needs to think like he would be if Victor were here, preparing himself to skate that way—

Kaida nudges him and indicated the TV nearby. Yuuri glances over, and freezes. Yurio’s skating to a hellishly complex series of steps and jumps, and somehow still looks serene.

Yuuri averts his eyes, finishes stretching, and then walks out to the rink to watch the rest of Yurio’s performance live.

He’s incredible. As Yurio collapses to the ice, Yuuri’s struck by a thought. _It was a performance beyond his limits. That’s what it was._

Yuuri thinks back to Victor’s words to him, months ago— _don’t use the ice to punish yourself_.

He wonders if anyone’s told Yurio that.

Then Kaida nudges him again, and Yuuri looks over to where she’s indicating, at the large wolverine and her human.

“Ah, hello, Yakov,” Yuuri mutters, bowing out of nervousness.

“None of that now,” Yakov says, and Yuuri fights the urge to immediately bow again. “You need to get out on the ice. I can take your things.”

Yuuri’s mildly surprised, but Yakov is right, and so Yuuri hands him his jacket, and his glasses, and his skate guards. He kisses Kaida, and then skates out to the center.

Everything’s a bit blurrier than usual, unshed tears warping his vision as he stares down at his feet.

_Pathetic,_ he thinks. _Get yourself together. If you skate badly now, everyone will think Victor’s taught you nothing, that his time off was just a waste.You have to prove yourself. You can’t let it end here. Not in your last season._

Quad toe, doub—single toe.

_Crap. I need to recover from this. Okay, think, why am I messing up? It’s because_ —

— _you tend to mess up your jumps when something’s on your mind_ , says Victor’s voice. He was right then, and he’s right now—even when he’s not present.

Not that that was the only thing Victor’d been right about. He’d somehow pieced together that Yuuri wanted to _win,_ made it so that Yuuri could express that thought out loud. And he’d known—known that everything on the ice was love, _is_ love, and that when Yuuri had promised to skate his all, he’d known—

Kaida’s gentle affirmation flows through their bond, and Yuuri knows he’s on the right track.

Steps out on the next jump, but that’s okay.

He’s come as far as he has because of Victor and Vasilisa’s support.

Because they _believed_ in him.

Believed that he could win, even when he himself couldn’t.

Triple toe, two-footed landing.

_Stop thinking_ —

Yurio distracts him, and Yuuri finds himself thinking about Yurio’s free skate. He’d looked dead by the end, there, and Yuuri hopes—no. His stamina is better than Yurio’s, he knows this.

Triple axel.

His favorite jump doesn’t fail him, and his thoughts turn back to Victor for a moment, to Victor offering to leave Vasilisa behind; to not only be separated from half his soul but to expose that fact to the whole world.

All for Yuuri.

The least Yuuri can do in return is skate well. Regardless of whether Victor’s with him or not, the program stays the same; same steps, same jumps, same difficulty—

Triple flip.

If he can just keep the program simple in his mind like it usually is, he can do it.

Triple axel, single loop, triple Salchow.

This program, that he and Victor created together—

Triple lutz, triple toe.

—Yuuri loves it so much it _hurts._

He pushes into the step sequence with renewed energy.

_I’m not done yet. I’ll be done when I get gold with Victor._

* * *

“Oi,” Yakov says once they’re in the kiss and cry. His voice sounds like what Yuuri imagines his daemon sounds like—scraggly, an almost-permanent growl. “You failed to take advantage of the program Vitya made for you. Why didn’t you practice for the possibility that you might flub a jump? Victor never did either!”

Yuuri stares, things falling suddenly into place.

_Wow, his coaching style really is exactly like Victor’s. Or, the other way around, I guess_ , Kaida thinks.

Dimly, Yuuri registers scores being called out, but Yakov doesn’t stop talking for a few good seconds afterwards. Then they both turn and look at the screen, Yuuri squinting a bit to make out the numbers.

_Oh. Third._ And still one skater left. JJ. Which means—

“That’s a higher score than I expected,” Yakov says. Yuuri turns to look at him.

On impulse (and because Victor told him he could) Yuuri leans forward and hugs Yakov. “Спасибо.”

Yuuri’s not even entirely sure what he’s thanking Yakov for. For being there today?

For Victor?

* * *

JJ takes gold, and Yuuri barely, _barely_ squeaks by into the Final.

He’s still in a state of shock when Sara and her daemon run up to him and Kaida in the hallway, congratulating him with open arms.

Yuuri, on impulse, hugs her.

And then her brother.

Kaida’s trailing behind Yuuri, not making any move to interact with the twins’ daemons, but also not making any move to stop Yuuri as he moves on to hug Emil next. Emil’s daemon does give Kaida a quick preen, though.

Then Yuuri spots Seung-gil, and Seung-gil’s daemon only just manages to dodge out of the way as Yuuri hugs Seung-gil around the neck.

And then JJ’s coming, so he gets a hug too, and then Yuuri tries but fails to hug Yurio.

It’s just—nothing _feels_ right. There’s only one hug he wants right now, and that person’s in Japan.

Twitchily, Yuuri and Kaida make their way back to the hotel.

* * *

Yuuri and Kaida are taking a short walk to clear their heads before heading to the airport—they’re not attending the gala; doing so without Victor seems pointless. They pause near an intersection. It’s snowing lightly; the whole world seems hushed, even the cars that speed by.

Yuuri mulls over his life. This is probably as close to ‘peak skating career’ he’s ever going to get, and now that he knows he’s going to the Final… he really wants that gold. Even if he doesn’t win gold, though, he’ll let Victor go, and—

Yuuri’s thrown sideways, tripping over Kaida and falling into a heap of snow.

“There you are, pork bowl. You made me look for you.”

Yuuri rolls over and looks up at Yurio confusedly. “Huh?” His daemon is a leopard, this time, her fur thick and almost ludicrously fluffy.

“What the fuck was that, earlier?” Yurio carries on, apparently unconcerned with explanations. “You creeped us all the fuck out. And what the hell was that free skate! Was it because Vitya’s not here? Which is a lame excuse, but—at least you have that, I was in top form in all senses of the word and I still lost to JJ! You have _no right_ to feel more down than me right now, _katsudon_.” Yurio practically spits out the Japanese.

Then he tosses a brown paper bag onto Yuuri’s lap.

“You can have it,” he says, not looking at Yuuri. “It’s almost your birthday, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” Yuuri says again, but hurries to open the bag. “Pirozhki…?”

“Eat,” Yurio says in the same tone.

“Er. Right now?”

“Just eat it!”

“Okay, okay…”

Yuuri takes a bite. There’s… rice? And pork, and egg—Yuuri’s eyes widen with realization.

“It’s katsudon!?”

Yurio gives Yuuri a sincere smile. “Yup! My grandpa made them himself! Aren’t they great?”

Yuuri takes another large bite, letting the familiar-yet-different taste wash over them. He smiles back. “Yeah, it’s—it’s вкусно!”

“Hmph,” Yurio says, but Yuuri can tell he’s pleased. Yekaterina even lets Kaida get close enough to lick her on the nose.

* * *

The flight back to Japan is long. Yakov was kind enough to give him a lift and directions to his terminal, but Yuuri’s still—he’s alone, again, in a way he hasn’t been in months.

The amount he misses Victor is, honestly, terrifying.

_That’s what happens when you love someone_ , Kaida thinks, sticking her cold nose under Yuuri’s chin. He bats her away, but sighs.

_I suppose you’re right._

* * *

They disembark the plane and start walking down the corridor. They’re halfway down when they hear a bark, and Yuuri and Kaida look up—it’s Makkachin, paws and face pressed against the glass. Then Yuuri looks further, and sees the exact moment Vasilisa and Victor realize that Yuuri and Kaida have arrived.

Vasilisa takes off running, and Kaida echoes it. The motion draws a few stares—Kaida and Vasilisa are far from their humans, farther than expected from almost anyone who isn’t a professional athlete.

And Yuuri and Victor are running after them—Yuuri feels more than sees Vasilisa barrel into Kaida, covering her in warm licks, because he’s focused on Victor; but then he senses a flush of intent from Kaida, and looks over at her.

Which is just as well, because clearly Vasilisa had the same thought—she’s loping easily towards Yuuri, and Yuuri simply slows, and spreads his arms.

She leaps into them.

She has her paws around his neck and is nuzzling his face with her own, and Yuuri has his fingers deep in her unimaginably soft fur, and she’s purring, and everywhere Yuuri comes into contact with her is _warm_ and _good_ —

And Yuuri knows the exact second Kaida does the same to Victor, because the feeling is amplified. But then Yuuri remembers that he could be hugging _Victor_ , as well, and he lets Vasilisa go and stumbles towards the doors that separate them, far down along the glass-framed corridor.

Vasilisa runs ahead and activates the door for him, so Yuuri doesn’t even have to stop, just turn, and run straight into Victor’s waiting arms.

It hasn’t even been a full seventy-two hours, and yet Yuuri knows they’re both holding on to each other with more—well, he’s holding on to Victor with more desperation than necessary. But the tightness of Victor’s arms around him has him thinking that maybe Victor feels the same.

“Oh, Yuuri,” Victor says, and even to Yuuri itself, his name whispered like that sounds like a prayer. Victor kisses him chastely on the forehead. “Yuuri, I’ve been thinking, about what I can do for you as your coach.”

Yuuri pulls Victor in for a tighter hug. “Me too,” he says. Then he holds Victor out at arms’ length. “Please be my coach until I retire.”

Victor’s eyes are impossibly soft as he brings one of Yuuri’s hands to his mouth and kisses it. “That almost sounded like a proposal.”

Now it’s Yuuri’s turn to smile softly, because it hasn’t even been a full seventy-two hours and yet he already can’t imagine being away from Victor that long again. And maybe, even if his season ends with the Grand Prix Final—then maybe he’ll ask Victor to take care of him again. And Yuuri would go with him, wherever Victor needed to go to train, and to compete, and—

“I wish you’d never retire,” Victor says, pulling Yuuri into another hug.

_Oh_ , Yuuri realizes. _I never told Victor I was going to retire after this season. Does he—would he—no, not now. For now—_

“Let’s win gold at the Grand Prix Final.”

Victor leans back from the hug and caresses Yuuri’s cheek. He smiles at Yuuri, and Yuuri smiles back without thinking about it. That’s the kind of effect Victor has on him.

_I’ll tell him later, for now_ — Yuuri leans up, pressing a kiss to Victor’s cheek. Then he steps back, and, hand in hand, they go to grab Yuuri’s bags.

_For now, I’m just happy to be back._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> давай - davai - let's go!/come on! (google translate was iffy here but oh well)  
> がんば - ganba - good luck  
> Спасибо - spasibo - thank you  
> вкусно - vkusno - delicious
> 
> credit for reine's name goes to bereniceofdale, who is ever-wonderful with her french expertise <3 (how does yuuri know reine's name, you ask? simple--jj's famous. most people know jj's daemon's name in this world). also, um, so you might have noticed a little bit of it starting in this chapter, but as of next chapter i'mma start veering off of the given script and basically making this a thesis as to What I Think Should Have Happened in the GPF :')
> 
> The daemons:  
> Yuuri Katsuki: Kaida, arctic fox  
> Victor Nikiforov: Vasilisa, snow leopard  
> Phichit Chulanont: Naak, sunda pangolin  
> Yuuko Nishigori: Airi, river otter  
> Takeshi Nishigori: Saya, akita inu  
> Toshiya Katsuki: Mimori, shiba inu  
> Hiroko Katsuki: Iteru, rabbit  
> Mari Katsuki: Yoshiro, crow  
> Minako Okukawa: Reiji, red-crowned crane  
> Yuri Plisetsky: Yekaterina, unsettled  
> Minami Kenjirou: no name given, ermine  
> Celestino Cialdini: Cecilia, rockhopper penguin  
> Yakov Feltsman: no name given, wolverine  
> Leo de la Iglesia: no name given, bobcat  
> Guang-hong Ji: no name given, golden pheasant  
> Christophe Giacometti: Vreni, rainbow boa  
> Otabek Altin: no name given, wolf  
> Jean-Jacques Leroy: Reine, red/brown husky  
> Emil Nekola: no name given, golden eagle  
> Michele Crispino: no name given, cirneco dell'etna  
> Sara Crispino: no name given, cirneco dell'etna  
> Seung-gil Lee: no name given, yellow-throated marten


	6. vi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> penultimate chapter!?!??!? 22 pages!!! there are points where i've decided i didn't like what canon was doing, though, so fair warning that not all scenes from the show will actually show up/be the same if they do ^^
> 
> thank you for all your support thus far, your comments and kudos keep me writing <3

Yuuri is absolutely exhausted by the time they arrive in Hasetsu. Victor helps him carry his suitcase inside while Yuuri trails after him, Kaida in his arms and Vasilisa brushing up against his flank.

It’s pretty late, too, so it doesn’t surprise Yuuri when Mari’s the one to open the door. She lets Victor through with a nod of greeting as he goes to bring the suitcase to their room, but gives Yuuri—and Vasilisa touching him—a very pointed once-over. Yoshirō clacks his beak loudly, the glimmer in his eye is identical to the one in Mari’s.

“Nice, little bro,” she says with a smirk. Yuuri blushes, but neither he nor Vasilisa make any move to separate themselves, which he supposes is telling enough. Mari grins as she leans against the doorway and pulls out a cigarette. “You want to soak?”

Yuuri all but groans. After the last however-long, nothing sounds more heavenly than the thought of the hot springs. “Yes, please.”

“I’ll let Vic-chan know where you are,” she says as she ignites the cigarette with a flick.

“Thank you,” Yuuri replies, setting Kaida down to let her walk under her own power.

“By the way, Yuuri,” Mari adds as Yuuri starts to move away. He stops and turns back to face her, but her expression is hard to read. “Congratulations on qualifying. We’re all proud of you.”

Yuuri’s breath catches. Normally he wouldn’t tear up, but it’s late, and he’s been travelling for far too long.

“Thank you,” he says again, hoping it comes across even just half as heartfelt as he means it. His family is proud of him, even when he doesn’t deserve it, and he feels like he’s only just beginning to appreciate how wonderful his support network really is. “Thank you.”

“Bah,” Mari says, suddenly sounding like their father. “Go get in the hot springs, dork.” But she’s smiling, and Yuuri smiles back before taking her advice and going.

He’s trailed by two daemons.  

* * *

They have exactly three days before they fly out to Barcelona for the Final.  

Yuuri tries to spend as much of it down on the ice or in Minako’s studio as is physically possible. He sneaks out of the house in the morning, Kaida grumbling something about being allowed to sleep in on his birthday, but Yuuri knows his family, and he knows Victor. And he loves all of them, but they would probably also celebrate his birthday for the entire day if allowed.

So Yuuri sneaks out, eating breakfast on the go, and jogs to the Ice Castle as a warmup, planning his on-ice training as he goes. His plan is cut short, though—he barely gets an hour and a half of ice time before Victor and Vasilisa show up, all but corralling Yuuri off the ice. Kaida, traitor that she is, helps them.

“Victor… I have to _train…”_ Yuuri mumbles into Victor’s shoulder, as Victor has decided the fastest way to get Yuuri to comply is to envelope him in a bear hug and bodily pick him up and remove him from the ice.

“Nope!” Victor says cheerily, half dragging, half carrying Yuuri over to the benches in the locker room. He sets Yuuri down rather gently, and then points at him with an incredible amount of self-assurance. “Skates off!”

Yuuri doesn’t move. “Are we doing off-ice conditioning?” he asks, already mentally adjusting his training schedule to compensate. If he does the off-ice now, he can probably work in at least—

“Nope!” Victor says, his grin getting, if possible, even wider. “We’re going to get lunch!” Yuuri can only stare. He doesn’t need lunch, he needs to—

“But—training?”

Victor, Vasilisa, and Kaida all give the same exasperated sigh, and Yuuri averts his gaze.

“Yuuri…” Victor says gently. “You _do_ know what day it is, right?”

Yuuri furrows his brows. “Yeah, but—”

“No buts!” Victor smiles a small smile, and Yuuri thinks it might be just a touch sad. “I was gonna surprise you and give you a present later at lunch, but… happy birthday.” Victor leans down and takes Yuuri’s lips into a gentle kiss. Yuuri moans into the kiss, involuntarily, and Victor’s hands come up to frame his face. After a moment Yuuri’s mouth opens, and then there’s tongue, and then—

Victor pulls away, and Yuuri blinks at the abruptness of it all.

“Lunch,” Victor insists, and Yuuri sighs, knowing he’s been defeated. He swears he hears Kaida mutter ‘finally’ under her breath, and shoots her a glare before turning back to Victor.

“Was that kiss my present?” he asks Victor with a small smile as he starts to take off his skates. Victor gasps at him, affronted.

“And pass up a chance to get my Yuuri something lavishly expensive? _Never._ ” Yuuri’s heart flutters for a moment on the way Victor says his name, _my Yuuri_ , before his brain catches up to the rest of what Victor’s saying.

“...Victor, what did you buy?”

“Later, later,” Victor says, cheerily waving away Yuuri’s concerns. “You’ll get the present after lunch.”

Yuuri raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything.

“Come on, we’re going to the best restaurant in town!” Victor says, as soon as Yuuri’s packed his skates away, and he grabs Yuuri’s hand and drags him to, of all places, Yu-topia Akatsuki.

“Victor, what—”

Victor turns back to him, smirking so self-assured and ingenuous that Yuuri falls just a little bit more in love. “We’re going to the best restaurant in town!” he says again, and Yuuri breaks into a happy laugh.

“You—oh my God,” he says, still laughing. Vasilisa nudges Yuuri’s hip with her nose, giving him an adorably wounded look.

“It was _my_ idea,” she says, and for some reason, that’s even more hilarious, and Yuuri laughs even harder.

He’s still laughing when they cross the threshold, and the entire place bursts into chaos, a barely coordinated shout of ‘surprise!’—his entire family is there, and all the Nishigoris, and a number of random guests from the inn, all cheering and greeting him with loud congratulations. Yuuri blushes violently, and Kaida ducks behind his legs, but then his mother disappears and returns with a tray piled high with food—not pork cutlets, because he hasn’t won and he’s got another competition in a few days, but delicious, homemade food nonetheless—and they all gather ‘round to eat and cheer together, and Yuuri feels warm and _loved_.

He looks up from some udon to catch Victor staring at him, an inexplicable expression on his face.

 _I think you know exactly what it is_ , Kaida says in the back of his mind as Victor smiles without ever tearing his face away. Yuuri blushes and busies himself with another bite.

After about an hour, the party winds down, with Yuuko and Takeshi rounding up their kids and their daemons and heading back to man the rink, the Yu-topia guests going on about their days and their business, and Mari and his mom and his dad returning likewise to work. Iteru and Mimori both make sure to give Kaida special kisses, and Yoshirō pulls her tail, which is as affectionate as Yoshirō’s ever gotten.

Victor thanks everyone for their cooperation as they leave, Vasilisa showing uncharacteristic warmth even in the face of strangers.

Then Victor rounds on Yuuri, and holds out his hand.

Yuuri stares at it for a moment before placing his own hand in Victor’s palm. Victor squeezes gently and tugs, and Yuuri stands up and follows him, though Victor never lets go of Yuuri’s hand, not even as they struggle to put on their shoes one-handed. Only their daemons, being very patient, help them not to fall over flat on their faces.

Yuuri’s laughing again by the time they head out the door.

This time, they head out to the ocean, to the beach where, so many months ago (had it really only been months?) Yuuri had promised Victor to show his love in the only way he knew how.

He tightens his hold on Victor’s hand and pulls Victor in for a quick, chaste kiss. Victor beams at him, and chases the kiss with another.

How far they’ve come.

They walk until they find a log to sit on, alternating between conversation and comfortable silence, Kaida and Vasilisa wandering out as far as Kaida can and taking joy in just exploring the world.

As they sit, Victor squeezes Yuuri’s hand once more, then lets go, reaching into his pocket. He pulls out a small box, thin and made of rusty-colored cardboard. There’s a sticker on the front, some elaborate and artsy logo that Yuuri doesn’t recognize. He blinks and looks up at Victor.

“It’s for you,” Victor says. “Your birthday present.”

Yuuri takes the box. It’s not heavy, and the roughness of the cardboard rasps as he runs his fingers over it.

He pries the lid off. Inside, resting atop a curl of black cord, is a small bronze medallion, hollow through the middle where the cord is looped through and engraved with a stylized image of a snow leopard. Yuuri gasps, and picks up the coin. It’s surprisingly heavy for its small size, and Yuuri holds it up for inspection, the cord trailing down behind it—that’s when he notices that the reverse is also engraved, and he turns it over, revealing a small, equally stylized arctic fox.

Yuuri looks up at Victor. “It’s Kaida and Vasilisa.” Victor nods, seeming, for once, a bit unsure.

“I thought… even if they can’t be with you on the ice, they are always with you here,” Victor says, pressing his fingers to Yuuri’s chest, right above his heart. “And maybe this necklace can help you remember. And not have to think about it.” It takes Yuuri a moment to remember how to breathe.

“Thank you,” Yuuri says after a second. “Thank you. It’s beautiful. Um. Can you? Put it on?” he asks, holding it out to Victor. Victor takes the necklace.

“Turn around,” he says, softly, and Yuuri complies. Victor’s hands come up on either side of him, stringing the necklace across his neck. “This long okay?”

“A bit shorter.”

“This?”

“Yes.”

Victor ties off the necklace, and the weight of the medallion already rests comfortably against Yuuri’s sternum. There’s a press of lips against the nape of his neck, and Yuuri turns back around.

“But you know,” Yuuri adds, averting his eyes and feeling his cheeks flush. He taps his own chest, right where Victor’s hand was, a minute ago. “You’re here, too.”

A heartfelt “oh, _Yuuri,”_ is all the warning Yuuri gets before he finds himself with an armful of teary-eyed Russian. “Oh, Yuuri,” Victor repeats, hugging Yuuri even tighter.

“Yes?” Yuuri asks playfully.

“You’re perfect,” Victor says, and pulls himself up far enough to seal it with a kiss. “Happy birthday.”

Out near the water, Kaida and Vasilisa kick up sand and spray as they frolic, despite the fact that it’s cold out; Yuuri, medallion of daemons hung around his neck and lover in his arms, thinks this might be the best birthday he’s ever had.

* * *

The next two days, Yuuri gets his way and spends most of them—as much of them as he can afford—training. He convinces Victor that switching his short program jump to a quad flip is a must, because it _is,_ and they spend most of the next day drilling the flip, trying to make sure Yuuri can land it at least somewhat more reliably.

Yuuri falls more times than he cares to keep track of.

Knowing that at the end, dancing Stammi Vicino in a duet with Victor awaits him is more comforting than Yuuri would ever have expected.

He rubs at the medallion around his neck. He’s actually not sure he could skate it alone again—the movements for two are so ingrained in him now… nor does he really _want_ to skate it alone again. But, well.

He’ll cross that bridge when he comes to it.

* * *

The flight is, as always, long and exhausting, though Victor insists on flying business and has already bought the tickets by the time it even occurs to Yuuri to think about the cost. When they arrive at Barcelona, it’s late afternoon, and Yuuri can’t help himself—he collapses into the bed without even perfunctory unpacking.

He has the vague awareness of warm, fluffy bodies pressed up against him and of a blanket being draped over him, but those soon fade into much-needed sleep.

When he wakes up again, it’s dark out, and he’s a bit chagrined to find that he’s drooled onto Kaida’s fur. Vasilisa, though, has got her head pressed up to his ribs, purring contentedly. He leans up on his elbow and rubs away the drool and scratches Vasilisa behind the ears before flopping back down.

Then he throws out an arm, reaching around uselessly for his glasses, before Kaida huffs and fetches them for him, rudely dropping them on his face.

“Thanks,” he says.

“Pft,” she replies. “Get them yourself, next time.”

“How’m I supposed to find them if I can’t see?” Yuuri asks, as innocently as possible. For a second he thinks he might even be able to get away with it, but then Kaida huffs and sits on his face. Vasilisa chuckles as Yuuri pushes Kaida off and sits up.

“Where’s Victor?” he asks Vasilisa. She yawns, flashing her fangs. Yuuri kind of wants to poke one.

“He went up to do some swimming while you slept,” she replies. “I thought the bed was nicer.”

“Swimming?” Yuuri asks with a frown. “It’s December…”

Vasilisa gives him a look that might be pitying. “We’re from Russia,” she says.

“...sure.” Yuuri reaches for his phone. There’s several missing calls from Phichit, and a string of texts that are all some variation of ‘where are you I want to go sightseeing’. Checking the timestamp, he figures it’s probably too late to reply, so he opens up Instagram and scrolls for a bit. Phichit’s clearly made it to his sightseeing destination already—there’s a selfie with his usual impeccable lighting and the Sagrada Família bright against the night sky behind him.

The next picture down is from Chris—him and Victor, side by side on the edge of a pool with their legs sticking up in the air. “Oh, he’s with Chris,” Yuuri says aloud for Vasilisa and Kaida’s benefits, and gives himself a moment to appreciate the fact that both of them are wearing very, very short swim trunks.

Then he keeps scrolling, moving past a photo of JJ and his girlfriend with a ridiculous cat ear filter, her sable daemon draped over both their shoulders and Reine posing happily in the middle. They’re flashing their engagement rings at the camera, and for a moment Yuuri wonders what that must be like.

The next photo is Yurio being held hostage by some of what look to be fangirls. There’s an aggressively puffy juvenile cat perched on Yurio’s head, and Yuuri figures that must be Yekaterina. There’s a few more pictures under that—it actually takes Yuuri a moment to realize they’re from the official fanclub account and not Yurio himself. Then there’s an artsy photo from the airport in Barcelona, in Moscow, in Bangkok—all Phichit—and by then Yuuri loses interest.

He tosses his phone down somewhere near his feet and falls backwards into his pillow. Then he turns and curls into Vasilisa, wrapping his arms around her when she nudges them. He runs his fingers through her thick silver fur, still amazed that—of all people— _he’s_ the one allowed to do this.

Kaida, not to be outdone, wriggles herself into the hug as well, and Yuuri holds both of them even tighter.

The reality of it all hits him again—he’s off to the _Final_. Again.

And of course, with what he’d said in his last interview, winning gold now that he knew the power of love… Yuuri hopes he hasn’t jinxed himself. After all, last year went _so well_ for him—

He cuts off his train of thought with a jerk, pulling the daemons closer and burying his face in their fur.

(It’s still not Victor, though).

Nonetheless, Yuuri hopes Victor can feel the kiss he presses to Vasilisa’s head.

As if summoned, the door flies open.

“I’m freezing!” Victor shouts, hopping from foot to foot in the doorway, absolutely drenched and with only a small hotel towel wrapped around his head. _Russian indeed…_ Next to him, Chris waves, Vreni waving her head from where she slithers on the floor after him. “Please draw me a hot bath!” Victor whines.

“Can you make me some hot coffee, too?” Chris asks, throwing back his head and winking, mimicking Victor’s dramatic tone.

“Wait, were you still asleep?” Victor asks, then grins and shoots a glance at Chris, who grins back. Vasilisa flicks her ears and darts off the bed, grabbing Kaida by her scruff and pulling her off, too. Yuuri does not like that one bit—

He shrieks as both Victor and Chris jump onto him, wet and freezing and dripping water _everywhere._

* * *

Practice the next morning runs surprisingly smoothly—Victor lets Yuuri practice his jumps, and he doesn’t flub any of them outright, only a wobble at most. The necklace, with every spin Yuuri makes, swings out, and halfway through practice Phichit accosts him for the details.

Vreni and Chris are friendly as usual, Kaida takes the time and uses it to catch up with Naak, and though Otabek’s wolf daemon—also a male, much to Yuuri and Kaida’s surprise—is yellow-eyed and intimidatingly large, Otabek himself is stoically quiet and keeps studiously out of the way.

When time’s called, Yuuri steps off the ice.  He takes his guards from Victor and ignores Yurio and JJ’s budding rivalry, determined to get out into the city, since he’d missed his chance with Phichit last night.

 _Nicely done_ , Kaida thinks in regards to the practice, and he scratches her ears.

“What do you want to do now?” Victor asks, standing at Yuuri’s side with his arms folded under Yuuri’s coat, looking vaguely concerned. Vasilisa stands at his heels, her tail-twitch the only movement about her. “I’d recommend a good night’s rest to prepare for the short program tomorrow…”

Incredulous, Yuuri looks up at Victor. Victor looks back at him, completely serious.

“Don’t be such a model coach now!” Yuuri says, still a bit disbelieving. This is the same Victor that has taken him on impromptu field trips to Tokyo and distracted him for a solid third of his training time just two days ago—since when does _he_ give good advice? “I’ve never been to Barcelona before, so take me sightseeing!”

Victor looks shocked for a moment, then he breaks into a smile. “As you wish,” he says, a little sing-song, and Yuuri giggles, because rooming with Phichit had meant nothing if not a thorough movie education, and he’d always thought Wesley and Buttercup had done right by themselves.

* * *

They make a pit stop back at the hotel,  Yuuri changing out of his exercise clothes and into something more suitable for trekking the city, and then they’re off.

They start with a late lunch at a restaurant downtown that Victor claims has the best paella he’s ever had. Yuuri’s willing to trust him on that, as he’s never had paella before. It turns that Yuuri was right to trust him; the paella is truly delicious, almost too much so—by the time they leave the restaurant, Yuuri feels like his stomach is going to burst.

He doesn’t have long to dwell on it though, because immediately afterwards they get into the sightseeing in earnest—they visit the Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló, Park Güell, and a whole jumble of other houses and sculptures and fountains and more art museums than Yuuri knows what to do with.

It feels like they’ve walked the entire city—even Kaida, with four paws, is complaining—when they get to La Rambla. Victor, with barely suppressed excitement, tells Yuuri that now they can finally get started with the _shopping._

And shop they do. Yuuri keeps an eye out for—well, he isn’t quite sure yet, but he knows Victor’s birthday is coming up within the month, and Victor got him the necklace, and, well, he’s not _sure_ but he keeps an eye out all the same—and in the meantime he buys a few trinkets for his family. Victor, however, insists on dragging them into any shop that catches his fancy.

Which is, to put it frankly, _a lot_ of shops.

But Victor enjoys it, and Yuuri likes seeing Victor happy, and so he patiently holds bags and tries things on as Victor sees fit, watching as Victor flashes his card for anything that seems interesting and trying not to feel guilty about the amount of money Victor’s spending on him.

 _To be fair_ , Kaida thinks, as Victor darts off towards yet another rack with plain shirts that probably cost more than Yuuri’s entire wardrobe put together, _you_ did _look rather nice in that sweater. Even Vasilisa thinks so_.

Yuuri glances to Vasilisa, who blinks slowly at him, and he smiles a bit. The sweater _had_ been indescribably soft, as well as the exact shade of navy that Yuuri loves, so Yuuri supposes he can justify that.

The exit the shop a few seconds later without buying anything, and pick up some jamón and a bag of candied almonds from a street vendor before Yuuri finds a bench and all but throws himself onto it, desperate for a break.

“Ah, this is fun!” Victor says, twirling around happily. “I haven’t been shopping in so long! Though, it would have been nicer to come when the Euro was weaker…”

Privately, Yuuri thinks that with the amount of money Victor’s been spending, a better exchange rate probably wouldn’t have made much difference anyways. He nibbles on a bite of jamón. It’s good. Probably definitely not on his diet plan, but good.

“Yuuri, do you want anything else?” Victor asks, tapping his forefinger to his lips. Vasilisa swats at a pigeon that’s walked too close to her tail.

“Ah, no, that’s okay,” Yuuri says, holding out the jamón. Victor takes a few of the small chunks, popping them into his mouth one at a time as he paces in front of Yuuri and Kaida.

“Alright! I’ll get you a new suit!” Victor decides, and before Yuuri can process that, he’s being pulled down the street by an insistent Victor. “And then we can finally burn that tie!”

“W—wait! I like my suit!” Yuuri says, to no avail.

* * *

The sun’s gone down, though it doesn’t seem any darker in the crowded and brightly-lit Christmas market. Yuuri and Victor have lapsed into comfortable silence as Victor finishes off the last of the jamón, both their arms laden with bags.

They stop at a stall where Yuuri buys a Christmas ornament that looks exactly like Yoshirō, and then Victor stops to get some mulled wine, though Yuuri refuses on account of the competition tomorrow.

The fact that it’s getting late and he does have a competition tomorrow reminds Yuuri of his original goal, which has been narrowed down over the course of the day—he thinks he wants to get Victor a… token, for lack of better word. Something small that he can weigh in the palm of his hand, something he can use to remind himself of Yuuri, even if Yuuri isn’t there…

Victor drinks his wine and follows Yuuri as Yuuri searches.

In the end, it’s Kaida who makes the discovery—she nudges Yuuri’s leg and points to a shop he’d overlooked, and Yuuri’s got his nose pressed to the window in an instant. It’s exactly what he’s looking for.

“Vasilisa!” he says, and Vasilisa pricks up her ears at him, mirroring Victor’s expression of confusion. “Keep Victor outside, I need to go in and pick something up!” Vasilisa nods, though she doesn’t seem any more enlightened, and steps in front of Victor, blocking his access to the shop. Yuuri heads for the door, then doubles back and leaves all his shopping bags at Victor’s feet.

“Yuuri, what—” Victor begins.

“I’ll be right back! Finish your wine!” Yuuri ducks into the shop, Kaida on his heels.

They look around for a few seconds, but find their way quickly to the main counter, where all the rings are, as well. The clerk greets them first in Spanish, then English, and Yuuri makes a quick decision.

“I’ll have two of these, please,” he says, pointing through the glass to a pair of gold bands, elegant in their simplicity. The clerk nods approvingly.

“Size? Do you need a chart?”

“Ah,” Yuuri says, having completely forgotten about that. “Yes, I’ll take a chart, please.”

“No problem,” says the clerk, pulling out a laminated slip of paper and sliding it over to Yuuri. Yuuri looks at the conversions between international sizes. He knows he’s an 8 ½  in in US sizes, courtesy of Phichit and his schemes—what isn’t, really—and Victor’s hands are just a bit larger than his own, so maybe 9?

“Ah, 17 ¾ and 19?” Yuuri tells the clerk, who nods and checks the sizes of the display rings. Their magpie daemon flaps its wings, and the clerk shakes their head.

“I’ll be right back, we have more in this style in the back,” they say, and vanish into the back room. Yuuri shifts nervously from foot to foot, until Kaida steps in and stops him.

“He’ll like it,” she says with a surety that Yuuri envies. Yuuri’s about to reply when the clerk returns, bearing two rings.

“Here you are,” they say, and at Yuuri’s request, pack the rings into a little bag instead of a box.

The shopkeep’s daemon gives Yuuri a knowing look as he signs up for the payment plan. Yuuri isn’t sure what, exactly, the daemon knows—though, he can probably guess; Yuuri knows what two rings, gold rings, usually mean. And that’s—that’s not originally what Yuuri had intended, but, well… it’s not like he’d _mind_ that, with Victor…

The clerk hands Yuuri his receipt and the rings, and says “Good luck!” as a farewell.

Yuuri stutters out what might have been a goodbye, and then he and Kaida all but trip out the door and over to Victor and Vasilisa, who’re watching them curiously. Yuuri looks around, and spots a side-street nearby that looks promising. He picks up the bags he’d left earlier, and marches towards it, muttering a ‘this way’ at Victor.

Victor doesn’t ask, but just follows, pausing only to throw his empty wine cup into a recycling bin.

The side-street, it turns out, was an excellent choice, because it opens into a small courtyard in front of a church, and there’s a choir off to one side, singing a beautiful hymn to an attentive crowd. The church steps, however, are empty, and Yuuri leads Victor up them, setting down his bags and fumbling around in his pocket until he has both rings in his hand.

“Victor, can I—” Yuuri swallows. “Can I see your hand?”

Wordlessly, Victor holds out his left hand, and Yuuri spares a second to be moved by the moment of trust.

Gently, Yuuri peels off the glove.

Then Yuuri takes Victor’s hand, a bit shakily, and slides on the larger of the two rings. He’d guessed right; it fits perfectly. The simple band glitters prettily in the dim candlelight of the church. The bells ring, striking the hour, but Victor doesn’t say anything, waiting, and Yuuri takes a deep breath before explaining.

“Thank for—for everything, up til now. I’ll be doing by best tomorrow, skating, and I—I want you to be able to think of me, too, when—I—you gave me something,” Yuuri says, a hand coming up to touch his necklace, “and I. I wanted to give you something back.”

 _I want to show you that I love you, too,_ he thinks, but doesn’t say.

Victor gets it anyway.

He smiles and takes Yuuri’s hand, slipping out the other ring. “Tomorrow, show me the skating you can honestly say you like best,” he says, and then slides the ring onto Yuuri’s finger.

“Now you have a reminder that all three of us are with you, always,” he adds, and Yuuri gasps and smiles, even as tears cloud his vision.

At their feet, Vasilisa and Kaida act like they don’t know who they belong to, weaving in and out between Victor and Yuuri’s legs. Victor looks at Yuuri like—like Yuuri’s something special, something to be loved, his adoration visible even to Yuuri himself. Yuuri makes a noise that is somewhere halfway between a whimper and laugh.

The choir sings soothingly in the background, and Yuuri kisses Victor, long and slow, expressing all the words he can’t say—and Victor, as always, meets him right in the middle.

* * *

They’re walking back, arm in arm, when they run across two familiar daemons. “Mari! Minako! You’re already here!” Yuuri calls out, waving happily.  

They don’t even say hello before bullying him into summoning as many skaters as he can on short notice for an introductory dinner.

Yurio grumbles about it, but Otabek, Chris, and Phichit all take the weeping in stride.

The table ends up ordering to share, another paella in the center and a dozen smaller dishes all around, everyone grabbing what they want at will. Phichit almost seems like he takes more pictures than he actually eats, Naak reaching out every once in a while to arrange a serving _just so_.

At least Mari and Minako have stopped crying and are able to actually socialize properly.

They eat and they talk, and things are winding down when Yuuri speaks again.

"Still, it’s kind of fun, all of us being here together before the skate. At last year’s Final, I was always by myself, even at the banquet. I couldn't even look Victor in the eye last time!"

At that point, several things happen at once.

Victor does a spit-take and spews sangria all over the table.

Kaida and Vasilisa exchange a look and then stare at Yuuri in horror, Kaida a bit more horrified than Vasilisa.

Yurio stares at him with open disgust, Chris looks amused, and Phichit, Mari, and Minako are all exchanging highly confused glances with both each other and with their daemons. Otabek, at least, seems as blank-faced as normal, though his daemon’s ears are pricked with interest.

"You mean you don't _remember!?"_ Victor chokes out between coughs. Kaida's ears sink slowly back until they're flat.

“You got drunk on champagne and started dancing. Everyone saw it,” Chris says, leaning his chin on his hand.

_“What!?”_

"It was awful! You started a dance-off and I got dragged into participating!" Yurio exclaims, and that's when the furor starts. Mari and Minako are both talking over each other, Yoshirō is making distinctly crow noises, Phichit’s already got his phone out, which is never a good sign, and Yuuri’s pretty sure the squeaking noise is coming from himself.

"No, no, it's true," Christophe interjects, pulling out his phone and grinning straight at Yuuri. "We did our part of the dance-off on pole, half-naked. Look, I have pictures."

Between Phichit's ‘ _Let me see!’_ and the fact that Mari, Yoshirō, Minako, and Reiji have all gathered around Chris, Yuuri knows he’s already a mortifying shade of red. He believes it, too, is the sad part—he’s his father’s son beyond a doubt in that sense, at least. And he can’t even see whatever photos they’re looking at—

Then there’s a phone under his nose. "Look!" Victor says, shaking the phone for emphasis. "You seduced me! You asked me to be your coach! Do you remember _none_ of this!?"

Mutely, Yuuri takes the phone and thumbs through the pictures (and videos, oh _no—)_ in mounting horror. He and Chris are in a tangle on the pole—stripped to their underwear, at the _banquet,_ and _why didn’t Celestino stop this_ —and Yuuri suddenly realizes where he must have remembered Vreni's name from.

Then something else occurs to him, and he twists around, finally finding Kaida hiding under his chair. It's loud and distracting enough at their table that Yuuri feels comfortable addressing her in Japanese, and being addressed back in public.

"You!” he hisses. “You knew! You never said anything!"

"I thought you _knew!"_ Kaida wails back.

"I definitely did _not!"_

"I thought you just didn't want to talk about it!"

"I didn't _know_ about it, how was I supposed to _talk_ about it!?"

"I made references to it!"

"That’s like, the _worst_ excuse, _ever!”_ A flicker of motion catches Yuuri's eye, but it's only Vasilisa, laughing herself into fits on the floor. Yuuri's about to go back to upbraiding Kaida—a year! How does one's own _daemon_ not mention the _single most embarrassing even to happen in one's life_ for an entire _year_ —

"Oh my God," Victor mumbles, pulling Yuuri's attention. "You mean to tell me that I just showed up at your house? Naked!? And you _went with it!?"_

Yuuri actually doesn't even know what to say to that. "I—that's not—I mean—you've seen my posters!" he finally says. "It’s not like I was going to make you _leave!"_

"Oh my _God,"_ Victor repeats, sinking forlornly into the table.

"So, you two," Chris calls out to them, and they both look over. Chris has handed his phone off to Phichit, who's scrolling through and having a minor freak-out with Mari and Minako. Which, honestly. Of all of them gathered here at the table, Phichit should be the _least_ surprised—he and Naak were the only one with prior knowledge of both Yuuri’s tendencies around alcohol (too many college parties, Phichit's first year) _and_ the pole dancing (a dare, which Yuuri had then enjoyed too much not to continue).

"What's with the rings?"

And suddenly there's complete silence at the table. Chris’ grin is shit-eating, his eyelashes batting innocently, and both he and Vreni look far too pleased with themselves, inasmuch as a snake can even seem pleased. Yuuri instinctively covers his ring hand, but Victor proudly holds his out.

Yuuri sees the exact moment _something_ clicks in Phichit's mind.

"Oh my God, you guys got married!?" Phichit all but shouts, clapping his hands excitedly, Naak perching precariously on his shoulder and doing the same. "Yuuri, I am appalled you didn't _tell me,_ we’re having a _talk_ later," he adds, pointing a finger imperiously at Yuuri, who is too stunned to react, before raising his voice and turning to the restaurant at large, "Hey everyone! My best friend just got _married!"_

The entire restaurant claps.

Yuuri is dying from embarrassment, Vasilisa comfortingly patting his leg with a big fluffy paw, but Kaida's jumped up and is proudly seated on the table. Victor, for his part, looks like he's enjoying himself far too much.

"Oh, no," he says, far too innocently, and Yuuri knows that tone by now. He braces himself for whatever's about to come next. "These aren't wedding rings, they're engagement rings! Yuuri and I will be getting married once he wins the gold medal in the final!"

Yep. There it is. Yuuri sinks deeper into his chair as the tone of the table goes from boisterously happy to chillingly competitive in a matter of seconds.

"Huh?" Chris says, low and heavy, his smirk making it clear he understood perfectly.

"Gold...?" Otabek says, enunciating.

"Medal?" Phichit finishes, not _quite_ glaring, but definitely close.

Yurio tsks, looking very affronted.

Yuuri raises his hands up in surrender. “Ah, no… I…”

Surprisingly, he’s saved from the least expected ally possible—JJ, somehow, has found their restaurant, and as soon as he arrives, Victor throws down several bills onto table, and the group as a whole suddenly finds itself occupied elsewhere.

Yuuri feels, deep down, just a little bit sorry for JJ.

* * *

“Hey, Yuuri,” Victor says, just as Yuuri’s trying to force himself to sleep and push off the revelation of earlier. Yuuri turns to look over his shoulder at Victor, who’s running his hand up and down Yuuri’s ribs.

“Yeah?”

“You know no one thinks any the less of you for what happened at the banquet, right?”

Yuuri blinks, because that was, in fact, exactly what he’d been thinking. His lack of response is as good as a declaration to Victor by now.

“Because no one does. You brought life to the most boring event of the year, and saved everyone from having to pretend to be thrilled to talk to crotchety old businessmen about what photos they can pose for in brand-name socks.”

Yuuri snorts.

“No, it’s true!” Victor continues. “You made the night memorable and exciting, and the fact that not a single photo has found its way onto social media should show you how highly your peers regard you.”

Yuuri sighs, and rolls over, so he’s completely facing Victor. Victor reaches an arm around him and pulls him closer.

“I promise,” Victor says, and kisses Yuuri’s forehead.

“I believe you,” Yuuri says, and in saying it, finds that he does.

He falls asleep pretty quickly, after that.

* * *

Victor wakes Yuuri up the next morning, already fully dressed, with a plate of breakfast.

Yuuri eats silently, Vasilisa and Kaida flanking him on either side, as Victor checks various apps and fills Yuuri in on what’s going on on all of them.

He still feels relaxed when they walk to the rink, and what Victor and Vasilisa and Kaida can’t keep out of his head, music helps him with.

He skates onto the ice for warmup with more determination than he’s used to feeling before an event.

As the lowest to qualify, Yuuri’s the first to skate. He takes one more lap while the others file off the ice, and fingers his necklace for good luck before tucking it under his costume. He glides back over to where Victor’s waiting, and exchanges his tracksuit jacket for a water bottle. He takes a few sips, then sets the bottle down. He takes a few deep breaths, aware of Kaida reaching up with her paw to touch Yuuri’s fingers where they’re resting against the rail.

He leans over far enough to give her a peck on the forehead.

“Yuuri,” says Victor, and Yuuri looks up.

“Yes?”

Victor takes Yuuri’s hand, and kisses the ring he’s wearing.

Nothing else needs to be said.

Victor smiles at him, proud, and Yuuri smiles back. _Show me the skating you can truly say is best,_ was what Victor had told him to do yesterday. That’s exactly what Yuuri intends to do today. He clenches his hand tightly, the warm metal pressing into his skin.

“I’m off!” he says, and skates out to the roar of the crowd.

He kisses his own ring as he gets into position.

Things start off alright, but they start to go wrong almost immediately once Yuuri remembers that even if he skates flawlessly, JJ’s base score is still higher. Which means he _has_ to skate flawlessly, or else he doesn’t even stand a chance.

And pressure has never been Yuuri’s friend.

His body knows what to do, at least, a blessing of muscle memory, but Yuuri can’t find himself in the story this time, and even as he skates, he knows—

— _how many points am I losing, just based on presentation?_

He skates most of his jumps cleanly, touching down only once on the quad flip.

The ice is cold, but his fingers still burn.

He falls to the his knees even as gifts rain down around him, once he’s done.

* * *

He doesn’t even break the hundred mark.

* * *

Yuuri doesn’t let himself dwell on it too long. Or, really, _Kaida_ doesn’t let Yuuri dwell on it too long, nipping at his fingers to snap him out of the blankness, focusing him onto Phichit, who’s skating. Yuuri still doesn’t have his glasses, so he can’t see much beyond a red blur, but the song brings back memories of sitting together on shitty dorm beds, as Phichit tells Yuuri his dream of skating to this very song.

Yuuri is, not for the first time, completely and overwhelmingly proud of his friend.

Based on the screams and the cheers, Yuuri thinks the crowd is at least sympathetic to the emotion and love Phichit’s put into his program.

Then Yurio literally kicks them out of the kiss and cry as he goes to take his position on the ice, and Yuuri and Victor take that as their cues to go spectate from elsewhere.

* * *

Yuuri, predictably, gets stopped by the press. It’s only when he’s almost done that he realizes Victor and Vasilisa are no longer at his side—he finishes the interview quickly, retrieves his glasses, and sets out in search of Victor.

Yuuri finds him in the section of the stands reserved for competitors not currently rinkside. He’s staring out at the ice, quiet even amidst all the cheering, and he looks—sad? Concerned? Longing? Yuuri isn’t sure what to make of that expression.

Only when Yurio’s score is announced—and the broken world record to go with it—does Victor snap out of it, finally noticing Yuuri and Kaida.

“Ah, I was curious to see what was happening, too,” Yuuri says. Victor looks… unsettled, and Yuuri thinks he can imagine why; he’s not even been gone a season, and now his world record is already broken, and by a fifteen-year-old in his debut season, no less. For someone like Victor, who’s spent a lifetime building up his legacy, it must sting. Kaida presses closer to Yuuri’s legs.

Victor nods and says, “Chris is about to start. Let’s get seats.”

There’s two empty seats next to Sara, and as soon as Yuuri and Victor sits down, Kaida crawls into Yuuri’s lap. Vasilisa shoots her a glance, and settles for placing her head in Victor’s. Yuuri’s lips twitch into a small smile, and he hugs Kaida close as Chris starts to skate.

Yuuri intends to watch Chris skate the whole way through—his quad Lutz really is beautiful—but at some point, he gets distracted by Victor.

Victor, who’s staring out at the ice, a finger crooked pensively over his chin, a small smile gracing his lips.

He looks so… happy.

 _You still haven’t told him about your retirement_ , Yuuri thinks to himself. _He can come back to the ice next season without problems._

He hugs Kaida tighter.

Tonight, then.

* * *

Christophe also outscores Yuuri.

It’s not necessarily surprising, but… Yuuri had thought he’d done better. Otabek knocks him down yet another peg—with Yurio and Victor’s evident support—and when JJ steps up to the ice, Yuuri braces himself for fifth place.

To everyone’s shock, it doesn’t come.

Yuuri watches JJ break down on the ice, and feels his stomach twist uncomfortably.

Familiarly.

It’s an agonizing two minutes.

* * *

“I’ll be right back,” Yuuri mumbles to Victor, as the ice gets resurfaced for the next phase of the competition, before darting away. He works his way through the hallways and empty rooms until he finds who he’s looking for.

“JJ,” Yuuri says, opening the door. JJ’s alone, sitting on a bench and staring blankly at the wall, Reine’s head pillowed in his lap. At the sound of Yuuri’s voice, his head snaps up. He looks at Yuuri with his usual bluster for all of a second, and then he deflates.

“What? Come to gloat?” he says, his voice flat and unaffected. It’s wrong on JJ.

“No,” Yuuri replies, and JJ quirks an eyebrow, just a little. “I came to tell you that I know what it’s like. But…” Yuuri pauses for a second, gathering his words again. “You have some of the highest base jump scores in the world. That you managed as many points as you did is proof. And speaking from personal experience, if I could come back after last year… you can come back from this, too.” Yuuri fiddles awkwardly with his necklace for a moment. “That’s all.”

He and Kaida turn to leave, but JJ calls out to him.

“Wait, Yuuri, I—” Yuuri turns back to look at him. JJ is holding on tightly to Reine, though her tail is twitching in what might be reminiscent of a wag. JJ lets out a breath. “Thank you. That means a lot, coming from you.”

 _Coming from me?_ Yuuri wonders briefly, head ducked, hand still on the door handle. “I meant it,” he says, and then he and Kaida leave.

“Where did you go?” Victor asks, when they meet up with him and Vasilisa again. Yuuri searches for the words he wants.

“To pass on a hard-learned lesson,” he says.

Victor hums, and laces his fingers with Yuuri’s. Like he knows.

* * *

They have dinner with Mari and Minako. Now that the competition is in full swing, Yuuri’s not sure he wants to actually hang out with anyone else—mostly because he’s not sure his nerves would handle that—and he turns down a few offers for food. But with Minako, Mari, and Victor dominating the conversation, Yuuri’s able to sit and eat and, for the most part, relax.

Afterwards, he and Victor leave Mari and Minako, and head back to their room.

* * *

Yuuri’s scrolling through Instagram while Victor towels off, Kaida lounging on the bed behind him and Vasilisa giving herself a bath with her tongue in the corner. Minako and Celestino are clearly having quite a time a bar, and Phichit’s hanging out with Chris and someone Yuuri doesn’t recognize. There's a cat daemon nestled with Vreni across both the man and Chris' shoulders. Phichit's helpfully captioned the photo with two Swiss flags, though, so Yuuri draws a few conclusions.

“By the way, Yuuri,” Victor asks, sitting near the window and dabbing at his hair. “At dinner you looked like you wanted to talk to me. Is everything okay?”

Yuuri flicks his screen dark, sets his phone aside, and takes a deep breath.

“Right. Victor, after the Final, I think we should end this.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve done more than enough for me,” Yuuri says. “Thanks to you, I was able to give everything I had to my last season.” Yuuri bows, like he hasn’t done for Victor in months. “Thank you for everything, Victor. Thank you for being my coach.”

And then, suddenly, Victor’s crying.

Which is _not_ the response Yuuri was expecting, not for—he just wants to set Victor free, let him be happy and whole—

“Victor?”

“Wow,” Victor says, devoid of emotion. “I didn’t expect you, of all people, to—to say something so… so _selfish,_ like that.” It takes a moment for Yuuri to parse that apart.

“Right,” he says. “I made the selfish decision by myself. I’m retiring.” Yuuri watches for a second as tears stream down Victor’s face, and then he leans forward, brushing Victor’s bangs out of his eye. Victor glares.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, uh, sorry, it’s just… I’ve never seen you cry.”

“I’m mad, okay?” Victor says, and bats Yuuri’s hand away. Yuuri jerks back.

“You’re the one who said it was—who said you’d coach me until the Grand Prix Final.”

The tears come faster when Yuuri says that. “I didn’t think you’d throw me to the side! I—I thought you would want my help more!” Victor replies, voice rising helplessly.

“Don’t you want to make a comeback?” Yuuri asks, and by the way Victor freezes, Yuuri knows he wasn’t wrong.

“What?”

“I just mean… don’t you miss the ice?”

Victor looks up at Yuuri with a shocked expression. Then he shakes his head minutely. “Yuuri—”

“I’ve seen the way you look out at the others! I saw you yesterday. You seemed—you seemed sad. Like you missed it.”

“Yuuri, listen to me,” Victor says, reaching out and taking one of Yuuri’s hands in his own. At that point, Yuuri really has no choice but to listen, staring into Victor’s blue, blue eyes. “Yes, I miss the ice. Me and you, we’re alike in that way—look at our daemons. Creatures of ice and snow, just like we are. But, Yuuri—how can you ask me to return while saying that you yourself are retiring? I would happily give all of that up, just to stay by you.”

“But I don’t _want_ you to,” Yuuri replies. “I don’t want you to give up things for me. Not things you love. And besides—I’m retiring. I can—I can come with you. So you’ll be able to train and skate unencumbered—”

“That’s not true—”

“—and you’ll be happy.”

Silence reigns in their room, neither daemon so much as twitching. In the end, it’s Victor who breaks the silence.

“I’m happy when I’m with you.” Victor’s reproachful, bordering on angry. “I’m happy when I’m working with you.” He catches Yuuri’s gaze and holds it, challenging.

Yuuri looks away first. They sit in silence for a few more minutes, the weight of the air between them suffocating, until Victor sighs.

“If… I promise to consider it, will you explain to me why you think—why you want to retire?” Victor asks. Yuuri nods, and Victor straightens his back a little. “Then I promise to consider returning to skating.”

“Thank you,” Yuuri whispers, ducking his head.

“Now tell me why you’re so set on retiring,” Victor says, almost snappily. Yuuri curls into himself a bit. He takes a moment to gather his thoughts.

“Last year was already supposed to be my last. The only reason it wasn’t is because you showed up. And… I never intended to return for good.” Then Yuuri lapses into silence, because what else can he say? If he medals tomorrow, then he’ll be ending his career on a high note. And if he doesn’t, well—it’s no different than it was last year, and he was as prepared to retire then as he is now.

Victor doesn’t say anything, but every line of his body screams disapproval. After a moment he gets up and goes back to the bathroom to dry his hair with the blowdryer. He returns without a word, and Yuuri bows his head.

It hurts, but he brought it upon himself. And Victor—it’s not fair that Victor would have to give up so much for Yuuri, when Yuuri himself isn’t going to be taking advantage of it. So Yuuri will deal with the hurt. For Victor.

Though their beds are still pushed together, Yuuri and Victor sleep apart, that night. Kaida and Vasilisa, both clearly disapproving of their argument,  don’t sleep with them, either. Instead, they choose a corner of the room and curl up, using each other as pillows.

Victor’s barely a meter away, and yet Yuuri already misses him.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no idea when yuuri's birthday actually was in relation to the rostelecom lmao just... go with it... ~~also i have had jamón ibérico once in my life and i would kill a man to have it again~~ i also hope i managed to get across that both victor and yuuri know that 'let's end this' is only referring to their professional relationship, not their personal... 
> 
> important question: if i do a series of side-stories for this 'verse, would anyone be interested in reading them? and if so, whose POVs would you be most interested in seeing? 
> 
> The daemons:  
> Yuuri Katsuki: Kaida, arctic fox  
> Victor Nikiforov: Vasilisa, snow leopard  
> Phichit Chulanont: Naak, sunda pangolin  
> Yuuko Nishigori: Airi, river otter  
> Takeshi Nishigori: Saya, akita inu  
> Toshiya Katsuki: Mimori, shiba inu  
> Hiroko Katsuki: Iteru, rabbit  
> Mari Katsuki: Yoshiro, crow  
> Minako Okukawa: Reiji, red-crowned crane  
> Yuri Plisetsky: Yekaterina, unsettled  
> Minami Kenjirou: no name given, ermine  
> Celestino Cialdini: Cecilia, rockhopper penguin  
> Yakov Feltsman: no name given, wolverine  
> Leo de la Iglesia: no name given, bobcat  
> Guang-hong Ji: no name given, golden pheasant  
> Christophe Giacometti: Vreni, rainbow boa  
> Otabek Altin: no name given, wolf  
> Jean-Jacques Leroy: Reine, red/brown husky  
> Emil Nekola: no name given, golden eagle  
> Michele Crispino: no name given, cirneco dell'etna  
> Sara Crispino: no name given, cirneco dell'etna  
> Seung-gil Lee: no name given, yellow-throated marten  
> Chris' boyfriend: no name given, white cat


	7. vii.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long, uni is hard

Yuuri wakes up to the pendant hanging heavily around his neck. He rolls over in bed, but Victor’s not there—not unusual, maybe, Victor’s an earlier riser than Yuuri after all—but right now, it leaves Yuuri suppressing a tremble. A quick glance around confirms that Vasilisa’s also gone. He runs his thumb over the engraved snow leopard.

Victor wouldn’t have given him the necklace if this was all it took to separate them, right?

He feels the bed dip behind him, and rolls back over as Kaida moves in for the cuddle.

“Don’t doubt,” she says as he throws an arm over her. He lets go of the coin and twines his fingers in her fur instead.

“I wasn’t.”

“Hm.” She squirms closer, and Yuuri hugs her tight. They stay curled together for a few moments, an indeterminate time that could have been a few seconds or a few minutes. Then the door opens.

Yuuri twists around, squinting at the door. Victor’s there, holding a bag, and Vasilisa’s already halfway across the room. She jumps onto the bed, purring, and nuzzles Yuuri as Victor walks over, her touch warm and comforting.

“Good morning,” Victor mumbles once he’s close. He leans down and presses a soft kiss to Yuuri’s forehead. “I brought breakfast.”

Yuuri kind of wants to cry. In a good sort of way, though.

* * *

Victor’s quieter, more contemplative than usual as they head down to the rink. They’ve decided they’ll talk more after the free skate—Yuuri knows Victor has a lot he wants to say, can read it in his body language—but the four of them know that right now, Yuuri needs to go into the skate as clear-headed as he’s able to.

But Yuuri can tell Victor’s thinking about it, because even though Victor smiles and chats at the cameras they pass on the way to public practice, Vasilisa is only barely holding her composure, constantly twitching and pacing and lashing her tail.

Yuuri wonders if the same cameras that are so eager to film Victor have even noticed the change in Vasilisa.

* * *

They’re cooling down in one of the side rooms after practice with the other skaters when Reine wanders over. She doesn’t look at Yuuri, or Victor, or even Vasilisa, just walks straight over to Kaida and whispers something to her.

Kaida gives her a short nuzzle, and then Reine leaves.

“What was that about?” Yuuri asks Kaida, later, as they’re heading back to the hotel to change into the costume. Kaida flicks an ear.

“A thank you.”

* * *

Yuuri’s skating third today.

“A good place,” Kaida comments as Yuuri stretches himself out on the floor. He’s got his music turned up, effectively drowning out any signs of the crowd. He nods at her, understanding coming more through their bond than spoken word. He continues to stretch until Vasilisa signals to him that it’s time to get ready.

Yuuri ties his skates as the cheers ring out for JJ. A quick glance at the scores reveal what Yuuri thought they would—JJ’s done well, but he must have missed a few points somewhere, because his scores aren’t as high as Yuuri knows they’ve been in other competitions. It’s still better than yesterday, though.

Phichit is next up, and Yuuri pauses just long enough to shout encouragement from the sidelines before following Kaida to a curtained-off area of the rink to finish his stretching. Victor and Vasilisa are waiting for them, still quieter than usual, but Victor gives Yuuri a soft, loving look, and Yuuri knows that whatever happens out there, they’ll be fine.

Not even the anxious part of his brain tries to deny that anymore.

And then Phichit’s done and collecting Naak in the Kiss and Cry and it’s Yuuri’s turn to step out onto the ice. He places both hands on the railing, giving himself one last stretch, and then he leans over and gives Kaida her customary forehead kiss.

Then he stands up, and looks at Victor.

“Yuuri,” Victor says, softly. He places a hand over Yuuri’s, where it rests on the railing. Their rings clink. “You can win gold, here. I know you can.”

Yuuri ducks his head down and stares at the ice, though he can’t help the small smile on his face. “I told you I wanted you to be yourself, didn’t I? Don’t go acting like such a model coach now…”

Yuuri feels more than sees Victor move closer. When Victor speaks, it’s right next to Yuuri’s ear. “Yuuri,” he says, drawing out Yuuri’s name in the way only he can do. “How much longer are you going to stay in warm-up mode?” He pulls back and Yuuri looks up, just long enough to catch the twinkle in his eyes as Victor pulls Yuuri in for a hug. “I really want to kiss a gold medal.”

Victor pulls away again, searching Yuuri’s face, almost as if he’s checking to make sure he hasn’t misstepped. Yuuri lets out a small scoff to accompany his smile, and buries his face in Victor’s shoulder.

The announcer calls his name, and Yuuri breaks the hug and squeezes Victor’s hand instead.

“Good luck, Yuuri,” Vasilisa says. Victor simply squeezes Yuuri’s hand in return. Then Yuuri lets go, and skates away. He knows, as he does so, that he needs to give this his all. This his song, after all.

This is his song—it’s _him_ , but more than just him; it’s Victor, too. _Yuuri on Ice_ exists because of Victor, just as Yuuri skates again because of him. Now, finally, Yuuri feels ready to express that. To show the world not only what this program means, but what _Victor_ means.

To show _Victor_ what he means, to Yuuri.

Yuuri feels calmer than he’s ever felt, skating out towards center ice. Victor’s there, and they’ll talk later. For now, all Yuuri has to do is one of the things he loves most, _for_ one of the people he loves most.

He kisses his ring, and then his necklace, and then strikes his opening pose.

* * *

Yuuri’s panting—no, _gasping_ —as he finishes. His whole body is aching already, lungs crying and his legs shuddering occasionally, everything pushed to the end for this final exertion. The raised difficulty—he hopes it’ll pay off.

On the sidelines, he can just make out the snow-white and dappled silver forms of Kaida and Vasilisa, pressed up to Victor’s sides.

His vision swims as tears rise, unbidden.

_I don’t want to leave the ice,_ he realizes. _Because if I do, it means that everything is over._

It’s a thought that he’s staved off as long as he’s been able to, because—because he’s built it up so high in his head, built it up so much for himself that _this competition was going to be his last_ , that the insinuation that maybe he doesn’t actually want to—

Yuuri’s spent so long considering _this_ his retirement that the thought of anything else… scares him.

And yet here he is, only skating off the ice because it’s _Victor_ waiting for him at the rink’s edge, and. And...

And Yuuri definitely, absolutely, whole-heartedly does not want this to be over.

* * *

Yuuri stares up at the overhead screen in shock. He’s not sure if he’s heard correctly—and then Kaida’s jumping out of his arms and racing around, licking Vasilisa’s face and Yuuri’s and even Victor’s, and Victor’s hugging him tightly and, well, it’s not like people don’t _know_.

Yuuri takes Victor’s face in his hands and kisses him soundly before turning back to the camera and waving.

_I broke a world record_ _,_ he thinks. _I broke Victor’s world record._

The tears he didn’t shed on the ice make themselves known again, but this time, Yuuri can’t stop smiling.

* * *

Yuuri watches half of Chris’ program before the press find him, and it takes all of Otabek’s for Yuuri to find a way to politely extract himself. He’s missed the first minute of Yurio’s skate by the time he makes it up to the stands with Victor, and—

_Well,_ Kaida thinks at him, her tone as shocked as he feels. _That’s certainly not… his usual._

Yurio’s skating is good because _he’s_ good, but it’s nothing compared to how he skated in the Rostelecom, or even just _yesterday._ Yuuri and Kaida watch in trepidation as Yurio doesn’t try for a single Tano variation, at how he wobbles on a landing and how another jump downgrades to a triple.

A quick glance to Victor and Vasilisa confirms that they’re not alone in noticing this; Vasilisa looks back at them, her ears back, and though Victor remains focused on the ice, his expression is sad.

Yurio finishes, and the crowd still roars, but Yuuri’s clapping feels hollow in his own ears.

“He’ll be fine,” Victor says, though his jaw is clenched. “It’s better that he learns now that winning isn’t everything. Before that becomes all he lives for.”

Yuuri reaches over and takes Victor’s hand, squeezing slightly. Victor squeezes back.

Then Yurio’s scores are read out and for the second time that day, Yuuri stares at the scoreboard in shock.

With a total over 310 points, Yuuri’s taken gold.

* * *

The podium lights are dazzling, blindingly so. Still, Yuuri smiles and Kaida sits primly between his skates. Chris is to his right, Otabek on his left, and Yuuri is in the middle.

_Yuuri is in the middle,_ and it’s strange and overwhelming and _amazing,_ and Yuuri’s smile is genuine. The photographers motion for the three of them to stand together on the center block, and Yuuri shuffles awkwardly to make room for Chris, Otabek, and their daemons.

“Congratulations,” Otabek says, his wolf dipping his head in acknowledgement behind him.

“You, too,” Yuuri replies, and Otabek grunts before busying himself with arranging his medal and his flowers.

Yuuri looks to his right, where Chris is adjusting his crown of roses. Chris catches him looking and smiles ruefully. “Congratulations.”

Vreni slithers by, passing dangerously close to Yuuri—but then again, she’s Chris’ daemon, and it wouldn’t be them if they weren’t constantly toeing boundaries—and periscopes up in front of Kaida, touching snouts with her.

“You, too,” Yuuri replies again. “I didn’t get to watch your full free skate, but what I did get to see was beautiful.”

Chris blinks at him for a second, then laughs. “You really mean that.” Yuuri furrows his brow as Chris shakes his head. “I’ll admit, at the start of the season I wasn’t convinced about Victor’s decisions but…” he trails off and looks over to the side of the rink, where Yuuri can just make out the blobs of color that are Victor and Vasilisa. “But even in all our years of friendship, I’ve rarely seen him this happy. Especially recently. So I’d like to apologize for how I behaved earlier in the season; I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no—”

“But you’re also a phenomenal skater and a good person, and I don’t think you need a shovel talk to know to treat Victor right,” Chris says, patting Yuuri’s butt gently. “So congrats again on your gol—oof,” he cuts off as Yuuri swats him in the face with his flowers, laughing.

* * *

Yuuri holds out the medal as he skates towards Victor, Kaida tailing him a few meters behind. They’re both smiling.

Victor reaches out, holds Yuuri by the wrist. Their daemons are exchanging touches, there’s cameras flashing all around—but it doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter in the least because Victor’s eyes are on Yuuri’s and they’re _burning._

Victor breaks eye contact; kisses first Yuuri’s medal, then his ring, then his lips.

“Congratulations,” he says, forehead and nose pressed to Yuuri’s. “I’m so proud of you.”

* * *

“Yuuri?”

“Hm?”

“Your exhibition skate tomorrow…”

Yuuri looks over at Victor. “Yes?”

“Well.” Victor, Yuuri is interested to note, is blushing faintly. “You know I like surprising the audience.”

“Yes,” Yuuri says; it’s a well-known fact by anyone who’s ever followed Victor’s career, that he would switch things up with no warning just to keep spectators and judges on their toes.

“I want to surprise them. With your help, of course…”

Vasilisa throws herself into Yuuri’s lap. “He wants you to skate your duet with him for your exhibition.”

Yuuri’s eyes snap back up to Victor. Victor shrugs, a little helplessly.

“Well… okay then.”

* * *

That night, Victor tightens his hold on Yuuri as Yuuri turns off the lights, their daemons already curled up next to them.

“Is tomorrow too soon to get married?”

Yuuri laughs, and turns over, batting Victor lightly on the arm. “Just a little bit, yes.”

“Darn,” Victor says, and steals another kiss.

“Good night, Victor,” Yuuri mumbles, nose tucked up against the crook of Victor’s neck.

“Vitya,” Victor says softly, into the darkness. Yuuri holds his breath. “Call me Vitya.”

Yuuri presses a kiss to Victor’s collarbone, then looks up. Their room is dark, but a shaft of light has managed to evade the curtains, and falls over Victor’s cheek, making his hair glow silvery-gold. His eyes are serious.

“Vitya,” Yuuri repeats, trying to let his cadence fall like Victor’s does.  “Vitya,” he repeats, and he’s about to say it again when he’s cut off by Victor’s urgent kiss.

They only break apart a few minutes later, and Victor presses one more kiss to the corner of Yuuri’s mouth before humming contentedly.

“Goodnight, Yuuri.”

“Goodnight, Vitya.”

* * *

It’s only on the plane, halfway to Osaka, that Yuuri realizes he and Victor never actually discussed what they were planning on doing next season, or even for the rest of the current season, for that matter.

But Victor’s asleep, drooling a little bit onto Yuuri’s shoulder, and Vasilisa’s draped across both of them, and Kaida yawns pointedly when Yuuri looks at her.

Yuuri takes the hint.

* * *

There’s a giant pork cutlet bowl waiting for him, when he arrives home. A giant pork cutlet bowl, and his parents, and the Nishigoris, and even Minami, who’d apparently rented out a room for the weekend to watch Yuuri compete.

The triplets’ daemons are wreaking havoc as they always do, Minami is listening with rapt attention as Mari shares her experience in Barcelona, and the background hum of the full inn soothes Yuuri with its familiarity.

He and Victor get sent away when Victor accidentally dozes off on Yuuri’s shoulder. They tumble into bed quickly and without much to-do, Victor and Vasilisa falling asleep almost instantly. Despite their tiredness, neither Yuuri nor Kaida are able to drift off, and after an hour of trying in vain, they get up.

Quietly, Yuuri goes through his haphazardly-packed bags, setting clothes and shoes to the side until he pulls out his medal. Even in the darkness, it gleams softly, and Yuuri allows himself a few moments of looking it over— _I really won that, didn’t I?_ _;_ Kaida’s firm reply of _Yes, you did_ _—_ before he stands and exits the room.

They find their parents in the kitchen, working together to clean the large inn kitchens. They’re sweeping, and Mimori and Iteru are manning the dustpans. All four of them are chatting softly as they work, and occasionally Yuuri catches one of his parents looking at the other with an expression he recognizes—it's the same way he looks at Victor.

The same way Victor looks at him.

Not for the first time, Yuuri is grateful for his family.

Mimori is the one who spots them, and she sets down her dustpan with a wagging tail. “Yuuri! Kaida!” she says, and Iteru sets down his dustpan as well while their parents look up, warm smiles on both their faces. Kaida walks forward into Mimori and Iteru’s greetings, but Yuuri lingers back, unsure how to say what he wants to and unwilling to screw it up.

“Trouble sleeping?” his mothers asks kindly.

“No, I just…” Yuuri trails off, then brings his hands forward from behind his back. He bows as he presents the Grand Prix gold to his parents. “I just wanted to tell you thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” he says.

“Oh, Yuuri,” his mother says, and pulls him into a tight hug, immediately joined by his father. “We’re so proud of you.”

“We were always proud of you,” Yuuri’s father adds. “And we always will be.”

Yuuri swallows down a sob and hugs them tighter, faintly aware of Kaida hugging Mimori and Iteru with the same fervor. Yuuri’s mother pulls away slightly, patting him gently on the cheek, just like she used to when Yuuri was ten.

“We’ll go hang this in the main dining room!” his mother says, holding the medal out proudly in front of her as she heads out to the dining room, Iteru hopping quickly after her.

“That’s… really not necessary…” Yuuri says, groaning.

“Nonsense,” his father answers, patting him on the back. Mimori pants and wags her tail some more, giving Kaida’s face a thorough grooming. “It’s absolutely necessary.”

Yuuri sighs, but he smiles nonetheless. His mother pokes her head back into the kitchen and enlists all of their help finding the perfect place for the medal, and then Yuuri and Kaida stick around and help finish cleaning the kitchens.

Both his parents give him one more hug before sending him and Kaida off to sleep.

They head back upstairs, feelings bolstered by their parents’ love, and enter the room as quietly as they left it. Victor is still asleep, his chest and Vasilisa’s rising in time.

_Tomorrow_ , Yuuri thinks, brushing a stray lock of Victor’s hair out of his face. _Tomorrow we’ll talk._

* * *

“Vitya, I’ve been thinking.”

“Hmm?” Victor hums, his lips pressed to Yuuri’s skin. Yuuri’s leaning with his back against Victor’s chest in the hot spring, and Victor’s doing his best to kiss Yuuri everywhere he can reach. Kaida’s lounging with the tip of a paw touching the water, and Vasilisa is laying back-to-back with her. Yuuri tilts his head a bit, and Victor obligingly kisses down the side of his neck. “What have you been thinking?” Victor prompts gently.

“Oh, right. Just that—I’m actually… not sure that I want to retire yet.”

“Hm,” Victor says, with another series of kisses, this time along Yuuri’s shoulder. “And what changed your mind?” He doesn’t sound particularly surprised, and Yuuri has to smile a little at that.

“Skating in the Final… it reminded me why I love the sport. And even if it’s selfish, I want you by my side for that, and… well. I didn’t want to step off the ice, then.”

“Hm,” Victor says, kissing down Yuuri’s other shoulder. “Well, good thing I delayed doing all the paperwork to take you off the roster, then.”

Yuuri twists around, arranging himself so he’s straddling Victor, arms draped over Victor’s shoulders. He raises a skeptical eyebrow. “‘Delayed’... or ‘forgot’?”

“Details, details,” Victor says, leaning up for a kiss. Yuuri acquiesces. Eventually they break apart.

“We should… move,” Yuuri says. Tellingly, neither they nor their daemons make any motion to actually leave. Victor sprinkles a few more kisses down Yuuri’s chest while Yuuri blushes at how much he enjoys these ministrations. Then he stops, intertwining his fingers with Yuuri’s.

“For the record, Yuuri, I just want to let you know. I would be thrilled to compete on the same ice as you again.”

Yuuri pauses. Almost doesn’t want to let himself hope. “You decided to come back?” Victor squeezes his hand, and Yuuri chews his lip to stop himself from smiling. “But… coaching?”

“Oh, I think I can manage both at once, don’t you?” Victor says. Yuuri’s mouth falls open, and he’s just about to follow up that question when he’s interrupted by Vasilisa.

“Just let him,” she says from the side of the spring. “He hasn’t shut up about it since he conceived of the idea, and even if you tell him no, he’ll just do it anyways. You might as well give in now and save yourself the trouble.”

Victor shrugs, and looks up at Yuuri, completely unabashed. “She’s right.”

Kaida lifts her head. “Don’t worry, Vitya, he’s wanted to skate as equals with you since he was ten. You won’t find any resistance from Yuuri here.”

Defeated, Yuuri slumps down, resting his forehead against Victor’s shoulder. He’s smiling, though. “So… both coach and rival, huh?”

Victor nibbles on Yuuri’s ear. “Rival’s a strong word, Mr. World-record-holder,” he says lowly, breath tickling Yuuri’s neck.

Kaida flips herself up to standing. “If you two are actually going to be like this, then I really do think you should move elsewhere.”

Victor and Vasilisa laugh, and Yuuri blushes.

“To bed, then, my dearest rival?” Victor says.

“I think you mean ‘fiancé’.” With a sudden stroke of boldness, Yuuri kisses Victor, then stops just as Victor tries to deepen the kiss. He stands up and walks away, leaving behind a gaping Victor and making sure to sway his hips in time with every step.

Kaida and Vasilisa snicker while Yuuri wraps a towel around himself. He looks over his shoulder at Victor, who’s still seated in the hot spring, wisps of vapor clinging to the air around him.

“Well?” Yuuri asks. “Are you coming?”

Vasilisa falls to the floor laughing at the way Victor scrambles to catch up.

* * *

Victor wakes him with a kiss, and after a light breakfast, they're off to the rink. They jog most of the way, but stop a few minutes short, taking the rest at a walk. Kaida brushes against his leg, and then Vasilisa. Victor takes his hand, and Yuuri smiles at him.

Yuuri and Kaida, they belong on the ice. Victor and Vasilisa, too; ice creatures, all four of them.

But Yuuri's heart—that doesn't belong to the ice anymore.

It belongs to Victor, just as surely as Victor's belongs to him (Yuuri has a golden ring and a medallion and a million gentle kisses as proof).

Kaida brushes against Yuuri's leg again, her touch emanating warmth and support. She looks up at him, an easy, foxy smile on her face, and Yuuri smiles even more. He squeezes Victor's hand, and Victor squeezes back.

This early, the air is cool without being cold, and Yuuri breathes deeply as a wave of contentment washes over him.  He's a creature of the ice, and he's in love, and he's _happy._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well. thank you all for reading, whether from the beginning or just now from this final update. i really wouldn't have been able to finish without the motivation and support all your comments and kudos gave me <3 i've decided to continue with the idea of doing one-shots in this 'verse, so those will be coming eventually. you can come tell me which ones to write first over at [my tumblr](http://piyo-13.tumblr.com) ;D (or if you have any questions about anyone's daemons, or if you just want to chat about victuuri--i am always down). 
> 
> and now, for the last time, the daemons (now with pictures!):  
> Yuuri Katsuki: Kaida, [arctic fox](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/animals/thumbs/rights-exempt/mammals/a/arctic-fox_thumb.JPG)  
> Victor Nikiforov: Vasilisa, [snow](http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/snow-leopards-biting-tail-funny-cats-14-573dbaf758f80__880.jpg) [leopard](http://felid-tag.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/snow-leopard-wild.png)  
> Phichit Chulanont: Naak, [sunda pangolin](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/72/9e/15/729e15839b1ec162d2765bcc7be99c76.jpg)  
> Yuuko Nishigori: Airi, [river otter](http://www.jamesriverpark.org/images/science/lg-otter.jpg)  
> Takeshi Nishigori: Saya, [akita inu](http://www.101dogbreeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Akita-Inu-Photos.jpg)  
> Toshiya Katsuki: Mimori, [shiba inu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Shiba_Inu_600.jpg)  
> Hiroko Katsuki: Iteru, [rabbit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/EnglishSpotRabbitChocolate1%28cropped%29.jpg/1200px-EnglishSpotRabbitChocolate1%28cropped%29.jpg)  
> Mari Katsuki: Yoshiro, [crow](https://cf.stbooking.co/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/jungle-crow.jpg)  
> Minako Okukawa: Reiji, [red-crowned crane](http://animalia-life.club/data_images/red-crowned-crane/red-crowned-crane1.jpg)  
> Yuri Plisetsky: Yekaterina, [unsettled (tiger form)](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ee/a3/f9/eea3f9ec65ebd8a846cee30e0a73261e.jpg)  
> Minami Kenjirou: no name given, [ermine](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e6/56/f7/e656f7ff1a214636de7f0de1dab3e2a4.jpg)  
> Celestino Cialdini: Cecilia, [rockhopper penguin](http://www.penguins-world.com/wp-content/uploads/rockhopper_penguin.jpg)  
> Yakov Feltsman: no name given, [wolverine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Wolverine_01.jpg/1200px-Wolverine_01.jpg)  
> Leo de la Iglesia: no name given, [bobcat](http://greglasley.com/images/Mammals/Bobcat%200023.jpg)  
> Guang-hong Ji: no name given, [golden pheasant](http://cdn1.arkive.org/media/5D/5DDD8674-78E6-4806-9FED-6E229B13C2C4/Presentation.Large/Female-golden-pheasant-walking.jpg)  
> Christophe Giacometti: Vreni, [rainbow boa](https://drscdn.500px.org/photo/62219597/q%3D80_m%3D1500/63f4fd97d2dced3d89eac06fe647bedb)  
> Otabek Altin: no name given, [wolf](http://www.alaskapublic.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Friendly-looking-Romeo.jpg)  
> Jean-Jacques Leroy: Reine, [red/brown husky](https://www.pets4homes.co.uk/images/breeds/43/large/aec7190387f6de3b5fc508a95b957e6e.jpg)  
> Emil Nekola: no name given, [golden eagle](http://www.wildechotours.com/pic/gallery/medium/Golden-Eagle_4_medium.jpg)  
> Michele Crispino: no name given, [cirneco dell'etna](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6e/6a/13/6e6a13a8684e358be12374f3d307bd2d.jpg)  
> Sara Crispino: no name given, [cirneco dell'etna](http://www.petful.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/cirneco-delletna.jpg)  
> Seung-gil Lee: no name given, [yellow-throated marten](http://www.iorise.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2014-01-05_ROW13696103305_Yellow-throated-marten.jpg)  
> Chris' boyfriend: no name given, [white cat](https://www.kimballstock.com/pix/CAT/04/CAT-04-CH0003-01P.JPG)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [hollow ground by Piyo13 [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8977564) by [Rhea314 (Rhea)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhea/pseuds/Rhea314)




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